3Frnm  lljf  SItbrarg  of 

iJ?qttpatl|eb  bg  I|tm  to 

tl|f  iCtbrarg  of 

Prittr^ton  ®l|?0lo9tral  S^mtnar^ 

BR  50  .G54  1888 
Gibson,  John  Monro,  1838-   I 
1921.  I 

Christianity  according  to 


1Kli6bet'0  ^beolOGical  Xibrar^. 


(*     JUL  lb  1922      *] 

CHRISTIANITY   ACCoferi#^ 
TO   CHRIST. 


A    SEJilES   OF  PAPERS 


BY 

JOHN  MONRO  GIBSON,  M.A.,  D.D. 

AUTHOR  OF    "the  AGES   BEFORE   MOSES,"    "THE  MOSAIC   ERA, 

"rock  versus  sand,"  etc. 


'  One  is  j-our  Master,  even  Christ." 


NEW  YOKK: 

ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS, 

530  BROADWAY. 

iS8S. 


^HE  several  papers  of  which  this  volume  is  composed 
— some  of  which  have  appeared  before  in  fugitive 
publications — are  related  to  each  other,  and  follow  an 
order  of  thought  which  to  some  extent  appears  in  the 
Table  of  Contents.  The  leading  idea  throughout  is  that 
of  the  Title  -,  but  the  book  makes  no  pretensions  to  be  a 
treatise,  nor  has  any  special  effort  been  made  to  avoid 
those  occasional  repetitions  of  thought  which  are  to  be 
expected  in  papers  prepared  at  different  times  and  for 
various  occasions. 

The  increasing  disposition  to  revert  to  "  the  simplicity 
that  is  in  Christ"  is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  signs 
of  the  times.  That  it  is  in  this  direction  we  must  look 
most  hopefully  for  the  manifestation  alike  of  the  unity  of 
the  Church  and  of  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  has  long  been 
the  writer's  belief,  and  is  the  aim  of  these  pages  to  show. 
Those  who  are  in  sympathy  with  this  view  will  need  no 
explanation  of  the  prominence  given  to  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  the  frequently  recurring  reference  to  it.  If  only 
the  deepest  desires  of  all  the  followers  of  Christ  were 
such  as  find  expression  there,  the  Church  would  speedily 
"  look  forth  as  the  morning,  fair  as  the  moon,  clear  as 
the  sun,  and  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners  " — the  visible 
embodiment  of  Christianity  according  to  Christ. 

London,  September  i8S8. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP. 
I. 


II. 
III. 

IV, 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

x:v. 

XV. 

XVI, 

XVII. 

xvm. 


CHRISTIANITY  ACCORDING  TO  CHRIST,  AS  EXHIBITICD 
IN   THE   lord's   PRAYER 

EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS 

THE   sceptic's   QUESTION   ANSWERED   BY   HIMSELF 

GOD    KNOWN   IN   CHRIST 

THE   TRINITY   AS   TAUGHT   BY   CHRIST     . 

UNION   WITH   CHRIST 

UNITY  BY   THE   WAY   OP   THE   CROSS 

WISDOil  PERSONIFIED   AND   LOVE   INCARNATE 

THE   INCARNATE   WORD   AND   THE   INDWELLING   SPIRIT 

ELEMENTAL  EMBLEMS   OF   THE   SPIRIT   . 

THE   DEMONSTRATION   OF  THE   SPIRIT     , 

THE   VITALITY   OF   THE   BIBLE  .... 

THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   AGE 

THE  SOUL  OF  BUSINESS;  OR,  THE  LAW  OF  CHRIST  AS 
APPLIED   TO   TRADE   AND   COMMERCE 

THE  PROPHET  HOSEA  ON  IKK  CAUSE  AND  CURE  OP 
SOCIAL   EVILS 

LAY   HELP   IN   CHURCH   WORK  .... 

THE   MISSIONARY   OUTLOOK 

THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO   CHRIST 


I 

28 

S3 
68 

78 
83 
98 
109 
120 
130 
154 
165 
175 

187 

208 
220 
232 
251 


CHRISTIANITY  ACCORDING  TO  CHRIST. 


I. 

CHRISTIANITY    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST, 

AS  EXHIBITED  IN  THE  LORD'S  PRAYER. 

TT  is  a  true  instinct  that  has  led  the  Church  of  Christ 
to  select  the  Lord's  Prayer  from  the  New  Testament 
and  place  it  side  by  side  with  the  Ten  Commandments 
from  the  Old,  to  be  imprinted  on  the  memory,  impressed 
upon  the  heart,  and  treasured  as  a  "  form  of  sound 
words  "  beyond  all  price.  For  it  is  much  more  than  a 
prayer-model.  It  teaches  us  not  only  how  to  pray,  but 
what  to  pray  for  ;  and,  inasmuch  as  prayer  is  the  lifting 
up  of  the  desires  of  the  heart,  out  of  which  "  are  the 
issues  of  life,"  by  teaching  us  what  the  desires  of  our 
hearts  should  be,  it  shows  us  what  our  life  should  be  ; 
so  that  in  these  few  memorable  words  we  have  our  Lord's 
own  presentment  of  the  Christian  life  in  its  leading  out- 
lines and  proportions.  Here,  in  fact,  we  have  an  authori- 
tative presentation  of  practical  Christianity.  The  Lord's 
Prayer  exhibits  Christianity  according  to  Christ. 

Considering  the  importance  which  has  always  been 
attached  by  Christian  people  to  this  compendium,  one 
would  think  that  it  must  represent  the  Christianity  of 
Christians  as  well  as  of  Christ :  their  ideal  at  least,  if 
not  their  actual  life.      However  far  short  they  might  fall 

A 


2  CHRISTIANITY   ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

in  attainment,  one  would  expect  that  tliey  would  surely 
reacli  out  towards  tlie  state  of  mind  and  heart  repre- 
sented by  a  prayer  which  most  of  them  are  offering  day 
by  day  continually.  But  has  it  been  so  as  a  rule  ?  We 
think  not.  We  question  if  the  majority  of  even  earnest 
Christians  have  steadily  set  before  them  this  ideal. 

There  are  three  classes  of  desires  represented  in  the 
prayer  :  desires  relating  to  God  and  His  cause,  desires 
for  the  supply  of  bodily  wants,  and  desires  for  the  supply 
of  spiritual  wants.  Of  these  different  classes  of  desires 
the  place  of  supreme  prominence  and  importance  is  given 
to  the  first,  the  earlier  half  of  the  prayer  being  wholly 
occupied  with  them  ;  while  the  latter  half  is  devoted  to 
personal  wants,  being  divided  between  the  body  and  the 
spirit  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  two.  Now,  it  would 
seem  that  the  great  majority  of  Christians  are  content  to 
dwell  in  the  second  and  lower  hemisphere,  with  only  an 
occasional  visit  to  the  first.  They  do  honestly  try  to 
subordinate  temporal  to  spiritual  wants  ;  they  do  honestly 
try  to  attach  at  least  double  the  importance  to  salvation 
from  sin  which  they  do  to  matters  of  bread ;  but  their 
strength  and  zeal  are  almost  all  absorbed  in  this  endea- 
vour. They  have  only  a  fraction  of  energy  left,  if  any, 
for  the  other  and  sunward  hemisphere  of  the  Christian 
life.  The  great  struggle  seems  to  be  to  reach  a  life  cor- 
responding to  a  prayer  like  this :  "  Our  Father,  which 
art  in  heaven,  Forgive  us  our  sins,  and  lead  us  not  into 
temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil ;  give  us  a  comfort- 
able living ;   and  may  Thy  kingdom  come." 

All  this  is  the  more  remarkable  from  the  fact  that  the 
summary  of  the  Ten  Commandments  which  our  Lord  has 
given  us  follows  the  same  order,  and  accentuates  quite  as 
much  the  superior  importance  of  the  Godward  hemi- 
sphere.    Just  as  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  we  have  the  soul 


CHRISTIANITY   ACCOEDING   TO    CHRIST.  3 

first  lifted  np  to  God  once,  and  again,  and  again, — "  Thy 
name,"  "  Thy  kingdom,"  "  Thy  will," — so  in  the  sum- 
mary of  the  law  "  the  first  and  great  commandment "  is, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with 
all  thy  mind."  Furthermore,  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  after 
having  poured  out  our  hearts  in  longings  for  the  Divine 
glory,  when  we  come  down  to  our  own  wants,  we  are 
taught  to  give  our  neighbour  an  equal  share  in  each 
petition  :  "  Give  us"  "  forgive  lis"  "  lead  us"  "  deliver 
us ;  "  thus  following  in  the  second  part  of  it  the  second 
great  commandment  of  the  law,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself."  Thus  the  commandments  and  the 
Lord's  Prayer  mutually  confirm  each  other  in  regard  to 
the  relative  proportions  of  the  Godward  and  selfvvard 
sides  of  the  Christian  life. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  two  parts  of  the  prayer  as  two 
hemispheres,  the  two  together  making  up  a  full-orbed 
Christianity.  Perhaps  a  better  idea  of  their  mutual  rela- 
tions may  be  had  by  changing  the  figure.  It  is  evident 
that  in  the  first  part  and  in  the  second  part  of  the  prayer 
we  are  in  entirely  different  regions ;  similarly  in  the  first 
and  in  the  second  great  commandments  of  the  law.  The 
former  in  each  case  may  be  regarded  as  the  heavens,  the 
latter  as  the  earth  of  the  Christian  life.  In  calling  upon 
us  first  to  love  the  Lord  our  God  supremely,  and  then  our 
neighbour  as  ourselves ;  likewise  in  asking  us  to  pray  first 
for  the  Divine  glory,  and  then  for  our  own  and  our  neigh- 
bour's good,  our  Lord  sets  before  us  "a  new  heavens  and 
a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness  ;  "  first  a  new 
heavens,  and  then  a  new  earth ;  first  a  new  heavens  in 
order  that  there  may  be  a  new  earth  ;  for  it  is  only 
through  the  heavenly  love  that  we  can.  reach  the  earthly 
love  and  life  to  which  our  Saviour  calls  us.     And  yet 


4  CHRISTIANITY    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

how  many  are  there  who,  though  they  do  honestly  try 
to  live  the  Christian  life,  yet  occupy  themselves  almost 
exclusively  with  the  earthly  part  of  it,  only  occasionally 
mounting  up  with  wings  as  eagles,  only  now  and  then 
extending  the  horizon  of  their  vision  beyond  the  limited 
sphere  of  their  personal  and  family  interests.  They  dwell 
habitually  in  the  lower  regions  ;  they  only  on  rare  occa- 
sions visit  the  heights. 

It  will  of  course  be  understood  that  it  is  only  Chris- 
tians who  are  called  to  set  their  hearts  first  on  the  cause 
of  God ;  it  is  only  those  who  have  learned  to  say  "  Our 
Father,"  who  are  taught  to  make  their  first  petition, 
"  Hallowed  be  Thy  name."  The  very  first  thing  for  a 
sinner  is,  of  course,  to  be  "  reconciled  to  God."  To  him 
Christianity  must  first  be  a  personal  matter,  a  personal 
coming  to  Christ  for  pardon  and  "  newness  of  life."  In 
this  personal  acceptance  of  Christ  he  learns  his  primary 
lesson  ;  so  that  he  is  able  to  join  with  all  who,  like  him, 
have  been  reconciled  to  God  in  saying,  "  Our  Father, 
which  art  in  heaven."  But  now  he  is  a  child  of  God ; 
his  sins  have  been  forgiven.  He  still  will  need  cleansing 
from  the  stains  contracted  in  his  pilgrimage ;  but  he  no 
longer  needs  to  seek  bare  life  as  one  who  is  "  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins."  He  no  longer  needs  to  make  his 
own  personal  salvation  his  first  care  ;   he  may  now  enjoy 

"  A  heart  at  leisure  from  itself." 

Christ's  now,  by  willing  self-surrender,  he  may — nay,  he 
will — forget  himself,  "deny  himself,"  for  his  Redeemer's 
sake ;  and  thus  he  will  set  his  heart,  above  all  other 
things,  on  the  hallowing  of  the  Divine  name,  the  coming 
of  the  Divine  kingdom,  the  doing  of  the  Divine  will  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

But  some  may  be  inclined  to  question  whether  the 


CHRISTIANITY   ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST.  5 

order  of  tliis  prayer  sliould  be  the  order  of  Christian 
endeavour :  "  Is  it  not,  after  all,  the  true  way  to  begin 
with  that  which  is  easier,  and  proceed  by  degrees  to  that 
which  is  more  difficult  ?  and,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  great 
deal  easier  to  subordinate  temporal  to  spiritual  blessings, 
than  to  subordinate  both  to  a  desire  for  the  Divine  glory, 
is  not  that  the  more  natural  and  the  more  practicable 
course  which  Christian  people  seem  to  be  in  the  habit  of 
taking  ?  So  long  as  we  do  not  lose  sight  of  the  first  half 
altogether,  there  surely  cannot  be  any  harm  in  putting 
our  main  strength  into  the  second  half  until  we  have 
attained  it ;  and  after  we  have  measurably  attained  it, 
after  we  have  fairly  learnt  to  put  the  spiritual  before  the 
temporal,  then  it  will  be  time  not  only  to  give  some  place 
in  our  thoughts  and  lives  to  the  first  three  petitions,  but 
to  try  to  give  them  the  place  of  prominence  which  we 
acknowledge  to  be  their  proper  place  in  a  fully  developed 
Christian  life."  Now  all  this  would  be  reasonable  enough 
if  attainments  in  the  Christian  life  were  to  be  had  on 
precisely  the  same  conditions  as  attainments  in  other 
departments, — scholarship,  for  instance.  If  it  were, 
simply  a  question  of  our  native  powers  ])lus  our  own 
personal  efforts,  then  it  would  be  only  reasonable  to  take 
the  easier  first,  and  postpone  the  more  difficult  for  later 
and  more  mature  effort.  But  it  is  not  so.  We  cannot 
accomplish  even  the  easiest  part  of  it  by  our  own  efforts. 
We  need  the  Holy  Spirit  to  teach  us  even  to  cry  "  Abba, 
Father."  We  need  the  Holy  Spirit  to  enable  us  to  seek 
the  higher  in  preference  to  the  lower  blessings  for  our- 
selves. And  seeing  that  without  the  Holy  Spirit  nothing 
can  be  done,  and  with  Him  all  can  be  accomplished,  the 
question  of  relative  ease  or  difficulty  is  not  a  serious  ele- 
ment in  the  case,  and  certainly  affords  no  sufficient  reason 
for  departing  from  the  order  our  Lord  has  Himself  marked 


6  CHRISTIANITY   ACCOEDING   TO   CHRIST. 

out  for  us.  It  is  vain  for  us  to  enter  on  tlie  struggle 
without  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  with  Him  we  need  not 
fear  to  set  before  us  the  highest  ideal.  It  is  the  very- 
work  of  the  Spirit  to  take  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and 
show  them  to  us  ;  and  can  any  one  suppose  that  He  will 
be  more  willing  to  respond  to  our  call  if  we  invite  Him 
to  begin  to  help  us  in  the  second  part  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  with  the  implication  that  if  He  only  help  us  well 
through  that,  we  shall  then  proceed  to  the  first  part  of  it  ? 
No,  no ;  that  is  not  the  way  to  honour  the  Spirit ;  it  is 
not  the  way  to  honour  Christ.  Let  us  take  the  ideal  our 
Lord  Himself  has  given  us,  in  all  its  fulness,  in  all  its 
grand  proportions ;  and  remembering  His  promise  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  all  who  ask,  and  not  forgetting  that  the 
Spirit  is  able  and  willing  to  "  help  our  infirmities "  in 
great  things  as  well  as  small,  let  us  by  all  means,  from 
the  very  outset,  aim  at  nothing  short  of  a  life  which  will 
embrace  in  it  all  the  glory  of  the  heavens,  as  well  as  all 
the  gladness  of  the  earth :  which  will  put  "  Thou," 
"Thine,"  "Thee,"  in  the  first  place;  "we,"  "ours," 
"  us,"  in  the  second ;  while  from  beginning  to  end  "  I," 
"  mine,"  "  me,"  pass  out  of  sight, — lost  in  God  in  the  first, 
merged  in  man  in  the  second. 

In  proceeding  now  to  look  more  closely  into  the  heart 
of  the  prayer,  it  will  of  course  be  impossible  to  attempt 
anything  like  an  exposition  of  the  separate  petitions.  All 
I  propose  to  do  is  to  bring  out  and  enforce  those  con- 
siderations which  will  serve  the  main  object  before  us, 
namely,  to  vindicate  the  claim  of  what  may  be  called  the 
missionary  petitions  to  the  first  place  in  every  Christian 
heart. 

The  illustration  already  used  may  help  to  such  a  compre- 
hensive treatment  as  may  suit  our  purpose.  We  have  spoken 


CHRISTIANITY   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  7 

of  the  first  three  petitions  as  the  "  heavens  "  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that  these  heavens  bend 
all  around  the  earth,  and  touch  it  at  every  point,  and  that 
the  interest  of  these  petitions  for  us,  and  the  possibility  of  a 
healthy  and  sustained  enthusiasm  on  our  part,  will  depend 
on  our  keeping  this  in  mind.  If  we  allow  our  thoughts 
to  wander  away  off  into  a  distant  heaven, — away  off,  as 
it  were,  into  the  cold  ether  of  the  interplanetary  and 
interstellar  spaces, — there  will  be  no  warmth  in  our  hearts 
and  no  life  in  our  prayer.  The  need  of  this  caution  will 
appear  when  we  consider  that  there  has  been  a  constant 
tendency  to  remove  each  of  these  three  petitions  from 
the  range  of  the  present  and  practical  to  that  of  the 
remote  and  impalpable. 

In  regard  to  the  first  petition,  it  has  often  been  for- 
gotten that  it  is  the  ^^ Name"  of  God  which  is  spoken  of, 
and  not  God  Himself;  and  hence  a  great  deal  that  has 
been  said  and  written  in  the  old  theologies  as  to  making 
the  glory  of  God  the  chief  end  of  man  has  been  unreal 
and  intangible.  When  Christian  people,  guided  by  these 
representations,  wished  to  test  themselves  on  the  question 
whether  they  were  supremely  desirous  for  the  Divine 
glory,  the  test  was  apt  to  take  the  form  of  some  severe 
abstraction,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  oft-raised  question, 
"  Have  I  such  a  supreme  regard  for  the  Divine  glory 
that  I  Would  be  willing  to  be  lost  for  ever  if  that  were  to 
promote  it  ?  "  Can  anything  be  imagined  more  futile  and 
unnatural  than  this  ? 

The  Name  of  God  is  that  by  which  He  has  made  Him- 
self known  to  us,  specially  in  the  course  of  revelation ; 
above  all,  the  two  great  names  of  "  Jehovah  "  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  "  Jesus  "  in  the  New.  As  to  the  name 
"  Jehovah,"  it  has  been  rationalised  away  into  the  thin- 
nest  and   coldest   abstraction,  through  the  influence   of 


8  CHRISTIANITY   ACCORDING   TO   CHRIST. 

Alexandrian  pliilosopliy,  whicli  is  chiefly  to  blame  for  the 
association  of  the  abstract  and  empty  idea  of  self-exist- 
ence and  absolute  being  with  a  name  which  was  intended 
to  be  full  of  love,  and  pity,  and  tenderness.  Then  as  to 
the  name  of  "  Jesus,"  while  the  sweetness  has  never  been 
crushed  out  of  it,  as  it  has  been  out  of  the  rich  and 
precious  Old  Testament  name,  yet  it  has  not  been  so 
closely  identified  with  the  Divine  Being  as  it  ought  to 
have  been.  In  their  zeal  for  personal  distinctions  in  the 
Holy  Trinity,  theologians  have  been  too  often  tempted  to 
forget  such  passages  as  these — "  No  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  Me,"  "  I  and  my  Father  are  One,"  "  I  am 
the  Truth,"  &c. ;  and  so  they  have  attempted  to  unfold  a 
knowledge  of  God  apart  from  His  Son  Christ  Jesus  ;  that 
is  to  say,  a  knowledge  of  God  apart  from  that  Name  by 
which  He  has  made  Himself  known  to  us.  The  conse- 
quence has  been  that  Christian  people  have  not  been  fully 
taught  to  think  of  Christ  when  they  pray,  "  Hallowed  be 
Thy  Name."  The  name  of  "  Jehovah  "  they  may  think 
of;  but  they  are  apt  to  think  of  it  after  the  fashion  of 
the  translators  of  the  Septuagint  rather  than  after  the 
fashion  of  saints  of  old,  whose  souls  were  filled  with 
rapture  as  they  thought  of  it,  leading  them  to  break  forth 
in  such  a  song  of  praise  as  this :  "  Behold,  God  is  my 
salvation ;  I  will  trust  and  not  be  afraid ;  for  Jehovah, 
Jehovah  is  my  strength  and  my  song ;  He  also  is  become 
my  salvation."  The  name  of  Jesus,  it  is  sometimes  said, 
does  not  occur  in  the  prayer  at  all ;  whereas  if  we  would 
think  of  what  Christ  has  Himself  said  as  to  His  relation 
to  the  Father,  we  could  not  fail  to  see  that  when  we 
pray,  "  Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be 
Thy  Name,"  we  are  praying  for  the  glory  of  Christ. 

The    substance    of  the    name  "  Jehovah "  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  Love  ;  the  substance  of  the  name  "  Jesus  " 


CHRISTIANITY    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST.  9 

in  the  New  Testament  is  Love ;  and  when  the  apostle 
John  says  "  God  is  Love,"  he  is  summing  up  the  name  of 
God  as  revealed  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Kew, 
and  verifying  what  had  been  said  of  old,  when  the  rich- 
ness of  its  meaning  was  first  unfolded  :  "  This  is  my  name 
for  ever,  and  this  is  my  memorial  unto  all  generations." 
Accordingly,  when  we  pray,  "  Hallowed  be  Thy  Name," 
we  pray  that  God  may  be  known  to  all  men  as  a  loving 
Father  ;  that  He  may  be  known  as  revealed  in  "  Jehovah, 
Jehovah  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering  and 
abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for  thou- 
sands, forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin,  and 
that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty  ; "  that  He  may 
be  known  as  revealed  in  Christ  as  the  Father,  Friend, 
Helper,  Comforter,  Saviour  of  mankind.  Who  that  has 
learned  to  know  Him  in  this  blessed  character  could  fail 
to  be  filled  with  enthusiasm  for  so  grand  an  object  ? 
Observe  how  real  and  tangible  it  is.  All  around  us  there 
are  those  who  think  of  God  in  no  other  light  than  as  mere 
Force,  or  stern  Law,  or  abstract  Essence  ;  or,  again,  as 
an  arbitrary  Ruler,  or  a  cruel  Tyrant,  or  an  omnipresent 
Eye ;  and  far  away  there  are  those  who  have  never  heard 
the  name  of  Christ  at  all,  and  have  never  had  any 
opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  a  Father  in 
heaven.  Oh !  surely  it  should  make  our  hearts  burn 
within  us  to  think  how  our  loving  Father  is  misrepre- 
sented and  misunderstood,  how  He  is  traduced  and 
maligned,  how  He  is  disowned  and  denied  all  aroiind  us, 
and  how  many  there  are  that  do  not  know  His  blessed  Name 
at  all ;  and  when  we  think  of  all  this,  it  is  with  no  effort 
that  we  struggle  up  as  after  some  abstract  or  intangible 
good,  which  we  ought  to  desire,  but  cannot  realise,  but 
with  a  resistless  enthusiasm  which  carries  our  whole  nature 
with  it  as  we  pray,  "  Our  Father,  Hallowed  be  Thy  Name." 


•\ 


10  CHEISTIANITY   ACCORDING   TO   CHRIST. 

This  is  the  best  channel  in  which  personal  enthu- 
siasm for  God  and  for  Christ  may  flow.  We  would  say 
'  nothing  to  disparage  such  outpourings  of  personal  devo- 
\v.  I  tion  as  find  expression  in  many  of  our  modern  hymns ; 
rand  yet  there  is  a  danger  of  being  carried  away  in  the 
direction  of  something  like  sentimentalism,  by  which 
we  mean  the  outflow  of  feeling  without  consequent  action. 
The  form  of  this  petition  guards  us  against  any  danger 
there  may  lie  in  this  direction.  "  Hallowed  be  Thy 
Name"  does  not  translate  itself  nearly  so  readily  into 
utterances  of  personal  endearment  as  it  does  into  such  a 
grand  and  manly  enthusiasm  as  that  of  "  the  sweet  singer 
of  Israel "  when  he  cried :  "  His  name  shall  endure  for 
ever ;  His  name  shall  be  continued  as  long  as  the  sun ; 
and  men  shall  be  blessed  in  Him  ;  all  nations  shall  call 
Him  blessed.  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God,  the  God  of 
Israel,  who  only  doeth  wondrous  things ;  and  blessed  be 
His  glorious  name  for  ever ;  and  let  the  whole  earth  be 
filled  with  His  glory.  Amen,  and  Amen."  This  first 
petition  should  by  all  means  have  as  its  animating  spirit 
intense  personal  enthusiasm  for  Christ ;  but  this  fervour 
will  not  narrow  itself  to  the  mere  personal  relation  of  the 
saint  to  his  Saviour,  but  will  go  out,  with  a  grand  sweep 
of  missionary  enthusiasm,  to  the  very  ends  of  the  earth, 
according  to  the  true  suggestion  of  the  paraphrast — 

"  For  ever  hallowed  be  Thy  Name 
By  all  beneath  the  skies." 

The  second  petition  has  suffered  somewhat  in  the 
same  way  as  the  first.  Some  think  of  "  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  of  which  our  Saviour  is  so  constantly  speaking, 
as  if  He  meant  a  kingdom  in  heaven,  whereas  He  makes 
it  as  plain  as  language  can  make  it  that  He  is  speaking 
of  a  kino-dom  which  He  has  come  to  establish  on  the 


CHEISTIANITY    ACCORDING   TO    CHPJST.  II 

earth  ;  the  expression  "  of  heaven "  referring  not  to  its 
geography,  but  to  its  heavenly  nature.  And  others, 
though  recognising  that  the  reference  is  to  the  eai'tli, 
have  nevertheless  allowed  themselves  the  habit  of  looking 
forward  to  some  grand  demonstration  in  the  future,  for- 
getting what  our  Lord  was  so  careful  to  teach,  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  of  which  He  spoke  came  not  with 
observation,  and  that,  instead  of  expecting  to  be  able  to 
say,  "  Lo  here  !  "  or  "  Lo  there  !  "  His  disciples  should 
recognise  it  as  already  established,  and  having  its  sphere 
in  the  hearts  of  men.  When  our  Saviour  teaches  us 
to  pray  "Thy  kingdom  come,"  He  is  not  leading  our 
thoughts  away  from  the  present,  away  from  the  sphere 
of  our  own  proper  activity  and  hourly  interest ;  He  is 
teaching  us  to  pray  for  a  kingdom  which  is  as  much  a 
present  reality,  and  as  little  in  the  clouds,  as  the  kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ;  for  a  realm  whose  concerns 
are  as  definite  and  as  practical  as  those  of  the  urgent 
politics  of  the  day,  and  infinitely  more  important  and 
farther  reaching.  It  is  a  prayer  the  answer  to  which  we 
should  watch  for  day  by  day  and  hour  by  hour,  not  only 
in  the  subjection  of  our  own  wills  to  the  blessed  sway  of 
the  "  King  of  kings,"  but  in  the  growing  consecration  of 
believers,  in  the  conversion  of  sinners,  in  the  overthrow 
of  tyranny  and  all  iniquity,  in  the  amelioration  of  human 
sorrow  and  suffering,  in  the  progress  of  ei 'ighteument 
amongst  the  people,  in  the  dissipation  of  the  fogs  of 
doubt  and  the  darkness  of  infidelity,  and  above  all  in  the 
progress  of  "  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  "  in  all  lands. 
True  indeed,  the  eye  of  the  Christian's  hope  should  always 
be  fixed  upon  the  goal ;  we  should  look  through  all  con- 
fusions of  the  present  to  the  great  future,  when  Christ 
Himself  shall  come  in  the  clouds  of  glory  ;  but  while  our 
eye  is  fixed  upon  that  point  in  the  future,  our  thoughts 


12  CHRISTIANITY   ACCOKDING   TO   CHRIST. 

and  onr  energies  should  be  occupied  with  the  work  He 
has  given  us  to  do  in  the  time  now  present ;  and  so  our 
prayer  will  not  only  be  a  missionary  prayer,  but  an  im- 
pelling motive  to  a  truly  missionary  life,  the  devotion 
of  heart,  and  soul,  and  strength,  and  property  to  the 
advancement  of  "  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ." 

The  third  petition  is  not  essentially  different  from  the 
second,  as  the  second  is  substantially  equivalent  to  the 
first.  They  all  express  desires  for  the  glory  of  God  upon 
the  earth ;  but  though,  so  far  as  the  main  thought  is 
concerned,  there  is  a  threefold  repetition,  it  is  no  vain 
repetition,  it  is  an  intentional  repetition,  a  repetition 
which  teaches  us  what  a  Christian  man's  first  desire  and 
prayer  should  be,  and  what  his  life  and  highest  ambition 
should  be.  Besides,  there  is  a  manifest  order  and  pro- 
gress of  thought.  The  three  petitions  represent  a  con- 
tinuous process,  leading  on  to  the  regeneration  of  universal 
society.  To  this  great  and  blessed  end  it  is  necessary, 
first,  that  the  Name  of  the  Father,  of  "  God  in  Christ," 
be  known  and  hallowed.  The  result  of  this  will  be  His 
enthronement  in  human  hearts,  i.e.,  the  coming  of  His 
kingdom.  And  as  the  result  of  His  enthronement  in 
human  hearts  there  will  be  universal  obedience  in  human 
life,  and  so  the  will  of  God  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
in  heaven.  The  first  is  a  prayer  that  the  blessed  "  Sun 
of  Righteousness  "  may  shine  on  all  mankind  ;  the  second, 
that  under  His  shining  life  may  everywhere  spring  up  ; 
the  third,  that  this  life  may  reach  its  full  maturity  on 
earth  as  in  heaven,  where  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  is 
never  darkened  and  never  sets.  Nor  is  it  a  mere  fancy 
that  recognises  an  implicit  reference  to  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  threefold  prayer  for  the  Divine  glory. 
In  the  first  petition  we  think  of  the  Father,  revealed  in 


CHraSTIANITY   ACCOEDING   TO    CHKIST.  1 3 

Christ  indeed,  for  no  man  cometh  to  tlie  Father  but  by 
Him  ;  still  it  is  of  the  Father  especially  that  we  think. 
In  the  second  petition  we  think  more  directly  of  the  Son, 
whose  work  it  was  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  the  Father 
on  the  earth.  In  the  third  petition  we  think  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  whose  special  work  it  is  to  influence  human  wills, 
and  bring  them  into  accord  with  the  will  of  tlie  Father. 
And  in  the  threefold  prayer  we  have  the  full  response  of 
the  believing  heart  to  the  celestial  anthem,  "  Glory  to 
God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  among  men  of 
goodwill." 

But  here,  again,  we  find  a  remarkable  disposition  to 
divert  this  third  petition  from  its  proper  object.  In  the 
first  place,  there  is  the  same  tendency  that  we  have 
already  observed  to  relegate  it  to  another  and  future 
sphere  of  existence.  There  is  a  disposition  to  despair  of 
the  earth  as  a  place  where  it  is  at  all  possible  that  the 
will  of  God  can  be  done ;  practically  to  surrender  it,  as  it 
is,  to  "  the  god  of  this  world,"  comforting  ourselves  the 
while  with  the  reflection  that  we  shall  soon  be  out  of  it, 
and  then  by  and  by  it  will  be  burnt  up,  and  in  its  place 
will  come  heaven  ;  so  that,  instead  of  praying  to  have  the 
will  of  God  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven,  we  rather 
look  forward  to  the  abolition  of  earth,  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  heaven,  as  the  only  hope  for  the  future. 
Surely  this  is  not  a  faithful  use  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
especially  of  this  third  petition,  which  so  expressly 
specifies  the  earth  as  the  place  where  God's  will  is  to  be 
done. 

Even  when  the  prayer  is  rescued  from  the  future, 
and  made  a  matter  of  real  present  interest,  we  find 
a  tendency  to  narrow  it  down  in  a  most  unwarrant- 
able manner.  In  one  of  the  most  admirable  of  our 
many  modern  collections  of  spiritual  songs,  by  an  editor 


14  CHRISTIANITY    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

whose  name  is  a  guarantee  for  liigh  excellence  of  work, 
there  is  a  series  of  hymns  founded  on  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  of  all  the  hymns,  in  number  twenty-four,  set 
under  the  third  petition,  there  is  not  one  which  has  the 
slightest  reference  to  the  main  substance  of  the  petition. 
They  are  all  hymns  of  personal  resignation  ;  the  pronouns 
which  run  through  them  all  are  "  I,"  "  mine,"  "  me ; " 
the  prayers  in  them  all  are  for  personal  blessings ;  there 
is  not  a  single  reference  to  the  earth  at  large.  I  should 
not  think  it  proper  to  refer  to  this  if  it  were  a  solitary 
or  an  exceptional  instance ;  but  I  do  so  because  it  is  an 
indication  of  a  common  tendency  of  Christian  people  to 
turn  this  grand  universal  petition  for  blessing  to  the 
earth  on  which  we  live,  into  a  matter  of  personal  religion 
merely.  For  once  that  the  sacred  words  "  Thy  will  be 
done "  are  used  in  Christian  language  for  a  missionary 
aspiration,  they  are  probably  used  a  hundred  times  in 
reference  to  circumstances  of  personal  history  which  call 
for  resignation.  This  is  probably  to  be  accounted  for 
by  the  influence  of  our  Saviour's  memorable  words  in  the 
garden,  "  Not  My  will,  but  Thine,  be  done."  There  we 
have  our  great  lesson  in  resignation.  There  we  have  a 
passage  which  will  serve  as  a  sufficient  inspiration  for 
one  of  the  sweetest  and  most  difficult  of  the  Christian 
graces.  By  all  means  let  the  sacred  words  be  used  for 
this  sacred  purpose,  and  let  hymns  be  written  on  the 
touching  theme  to  guide  and  cheer  the  troubled  souls  of 
God's  afflicted  ones.  But  when  there  is  so  lovely  and 
perfect  a  text  for  the  important  subject  of  Christian 
resignation  (and  there  is  no  scarcity  of  similar  texts 
throughout  the  Bible),  why  should  an  inroad  be  made 
upon  the  Lord's  Prayer  for  another  ?  why  should  this 
wide  and  grand  petition  be  robbed  of  the  grandeur  of 
its  meaning  as  a  missionary  prayer,  and  made  a  mere 


CHEISTIANITY    ACCOEDING   TO    CHEIST.  1 5 

duplicate  of  another  text,  however  beautiful  and  precious 
that  text  may  be  ?  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  grace  of 
resignation  is  implied  in  this  third  petition.  "When  we 
say  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,"  we  of  course  include 
the  few  inches  of  the  earth  on  which  we  stand.  But  it 
is  one  thing  to  remember  that  personal  matters  are  in- 
cluded in  the  grand  whole,  and  quite  another  to  make 
personal  matters  the  "  be-all  and  end-all "  of  a  petition 
which  manifestly  was  intended  to  soar  far  above  and 
stretch  far  beyond  all  mere  personal  considerations,  and 
take  the  whole  world  in  its  wide  embrace. 

To  illustrate  the  practical  difference  between  the  plain 
and  obvious  sense  of  the  petitions,  and  that  other  mean- 
ing which  too  often  takes  its  place  in  the  thoughts  of 
Christian  people,  let  us  look  at  it  in  relation  to  mis- 
sionary funds.  A  man  may  pray  for  God's  glory  in  the 
abstract,  day  after  day,  and  year  after  year,  and  all  the 
while  it  may  cost  him  nothing.  How  can  the  glory  of  Him, 
who  "  dwelleth  in  light  which  no  man  can  approach  unto," 
be  either  advanced  or  hindered  by  any  effort  or  sacrifice 
of  mine  ?  Similarly  a  man  may  pray  for  the  coming  of 
Christ  in  the  clouds  without  his  prayer  disturbing  the 
clasp  of  his  purse.  What  can  money  do  to  bring  Christ 
down  again  from  above  ?  And  for  the  same  reason  it 
need  not  cost  him  anything  to  sigh  and  long  for  the 
holiness  of  the  heavenly  country ;  and  as  for  resignation 
to  the  troubles  of  life,  though  it  is  one  of  the  most  diflS- 
cult  of  all  Christian  duties,  it  does  not  tax  any  financial 
resources.  But  let  a  man  pray  that  God's  name  may  be 
hallowed  by  all  beneath  the  skies ;  that  Christ's  kingdom 
may  come  here  and  now,  all  around  him,  and  to  the 
uttermost  ends  of  the  earth ;  that  holiness  may  prevail 
among  the  men  that  are  his  own  contemporaries;  and, 
unless   he   be   a    hypocrite,   and    deceiving   himself,   he 


1 6  CHRISTIANITY   ACCOEDING   TO   CHRIST. 

will  be  constrained  both  to  work  and  to  give  for  tlie 
proclamation  of  that  Gospel  which  makes  known  the 
blessed  name ;  for  the  heralding  of  the  good  news  of 
the  kingdom  to  all  the  nations  of  mankind ;  for  the 
making  known  to  all  men  of  the  presence  and  grace  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  who  alone  is  able  to  secure  that  the 
will  of  God  shall  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
In  the  one  case  there  is  an  impulse  to  the  exercise  of 
grace,  undoubtedly,  but  it  is  the  passive  grace  of  con- 
templation, adoration,  or  submission ;  in  the  other  case 
there  is  a  miglity  impulse,  as  well,  to  the  highest  and 
most  devoted  activity,  to  the  consecration  of  all  we  are 
and  all  we  have  to  that  great  cause  which  is  enthroned 
in  our  hearts.  The  life  to  which  the  one  points  is  like 
that  beautiful  ideal  in  Thomas  a  Kempis  ;  the  life  to  which 
the  other  points  is  that  quite  as  beautiful  and  far  grander 
life  of  the  apostle  Paul,  who  could  say  in  a  far  higher 
sense  than  the  other,  "  To  me  to  live  is  Christ." 

We  have  seen  that  it  is  necessary,  for  the  sake  of  the 
heavenly  part  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  that  its  relation  to 
the  earth  should  be  remembered ;  that  the  heavens  of 
our  thought  should  not  belong  to  "  a  happy  land,  far,  far 
away,"  but  to  this  very  earth  on  which  we  live.  The  next 
thing  will  be  to  notice  that  as  the  heavens  cannot  do 
without  the  earth,  neither  can  the  earth  do  without  the 
heavens.  If  the  heavens  must  have  the  earth  beneath 
to  make  them  our  heavens,  the  earth  must  have  the 
heavens  above  it  to  make  it  habitable  and  enjoyable.  And 
accordingly  we  shall  find  that  when  the  first  three  peti- 
tions of  the  Lord's  Prayer  are  given  their  proper  place  of 
prominence,  the  last  three,  far  from  being  hindered,  are 
very  much  helped  thereby. 

This  is   sufficiently  obvious  in  regard   to   the  fourth 


CHRISTIANITY    ACCOEDING    TO    CHRIST.  1/ 

petition.  As  long  as  a  man  is  living  for  himself,  without 
any  very  great  entliusiasra,  without  any  very  wide  horizon 
around  him,  it  is  very  hard  to  persuade  him  to  be  con- 
tented with  daily  bread.  When  a  military  officer  is  living 
in  London  he  is  as  particular  as  any  other  subject  of  the 
Queen  as  to  his  quarters,  and  surroundings,  and  style  of 
living.  But  let  him  set  out  on  service  in  the  field,  and 
he  scorns  these  things.  He  is  willing  to  sleep,  if  need 
be,  on  the  bare  ground ;  to  live  on  the  homeliest  of  fare, 
and  to  submit  to  hardship  and  privations  of  all  kinds. 
So  will  it  be  in  the  service  of  Christ.  So  long  as  our 
thoughts  are  confined  to  the  narrow  sphere  of  our  per- 
sonal life,  we  shall  find  it  hard  to  restrain  the  desire 
for  more  and  more  comforts,  conveniences,  and  luxuries ; 
and  only  after  these  growing  demands  have  been  fully 
satisfied  shall  we  be  ready  to  take  into  consideration  the 
claims  of  the  world  at  large.  But  let  us  realise  that  we 
are  not  now  living  quietly  at  home,  that  we  are  out  on 
service  in  the  field,  and  therefore  that  loyalty  to  our 
Sovereign  ("  Hallowed  be  Thy  Name  "),  patriotic  devotion 
to  our  country  ("  Thy  Kingdom  come "),  and  thorough 
consecration  to  the  enterprise  before  us  ("  Thy  Will  be 
done  on  earth  "), — that  these  are  the  claims  which  take 
precedence  of  all  others ;  and  we  shall  scorn  to  seek 
our  own  ease  or  pleasure ;  we  shall  be  contented  with 
the  humblest  fare,  with  the  barest  surroundings,  with 
scanty  rations,  if  need  be,  if  only  success  attend  our  efforts 
in  the  great  campaign  !  We  should  feel  the  soldier  spirit 
rise  within  us,  as  it  did  in  Uriah  when,  in  answer  to  a 
suggestion  addressed  to  his  natural  love  of  ease  and  plea- 
sure, he  said,  "  The  ark,  and  Israel,  and  Judah  abide  in 
tents ;  and  my  lord  Joab,  and  the  servants  of  my  lord, 
are  encamped  in  the  open  fields ;  shall  I  then  go  into 
mine  house  to  eat  and  to  drink  ?  ...  As  thou  livest^ 

B 


1 8  CHRISTIANITY    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

and  as  tliy  soul  liveth,  I  will  not  do  tins  thing."  Give 
me  only,  day  by  day,  my  daily  bread,  and  I  will  find  my 
satisfaction,  my  luxury,  my  life,  in  the  service  of  my  King 
and  country  in  the  field. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  growing 
luxury  of  the  time  is  one  great  reason  why  there  is  so 
little  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  God.  If  we  would 
be  content  with  "  bread  "  (by  which  we  do  not  suppose 
that  barest  necessaries  are  meant,  but  only  such  a  mode- 
rate provision  for  daily  wants  as  does  not  involve  our 
making  it  the  main  object  of  life  to  secure  it),  if  we  were 
content  with  a  scale  of  living  anything  like  as  humble 
as  that  which  satisfied  our  King  when  He  was  here  on 
earth,  how  much  energy,  how  much  time,  how  much 
money  would  be  at  once  set  free  from  the  mere  minis- 
tration to  the  wants  of  the  body,  for  the  proclamation  of 
the  Name,  for  the  advancement  of  the  Kingdom,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  Divine  Will  upon  the  earth  ! 

The  evil  of  the  growth  of  luxury  has  been  long  recog- 
nised among  Christian  people,  and  much  zeal  has  been 
shown  in  the  endeavour  to  stem  the  tide ;  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  zeal  has  been,  for  the  most  part,  wisely 
directed.  It  has  generally  taken  the  form  of  denuncia- 
tion and  condemnation.  But  the  difiiculty  has  always 
been  to  draw  any  line  that  the  common  Christian  con- 
science would  or  could  approve.  The  complex  conception 
of  worldliness  has  been  an  indefinite  and  uncertain  aggre- 
gate of  many  particulars,  most  of  them  of  such  a  kind 
that  they  cannot  be  condemned  as  in  themselves  wrong ; 
and  the  result  has  been  that,  as  is  generally  the  case, 
people  have  given  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  to  that  side  to 
which  they  have  been  most  inclined  ;  and  so  the  appeals 
of  the  Puritan  have  not  really  reached  the  conscience  of 
the  Cavalier.      But  the  question  comes  whether  there  is 


CHEISTIANITY   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  I9 

not,  in  the  order  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  suggestion  of 
a  more  effectual  method  of  counteracting  the  evih  We 
generally  think  in  this  way, — If  we  could  only  cure  the 
worldliness  of  the  Church,  what  an  imjDulse  would  be 
given  to  the  cause  of  Missions  !  But  what  if  the  better 
and  more  hopeful  order  be  rather  this, — If  we  could  only 
stir  a  proper  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  Missions,  for  the 
glory  of  God,  for  the  advancement  of  His  kingdom,  for 
the  doing  of  His  will  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven, 
would  not  worldliness  cure  itself?  Let  Christian  people 
first  learn  from  the  heart  to  pray,  "  Hallowed  be  Thy 
name ;  Thy  kingdom  come ;  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth, 
as  it  is  in  heaven ;  "  and  the  result  will  be  that  their 
souls  will  have  been  so  filled  with  these  hig-her  lono;iuo:s 
that  when  they  reach  the  lower  plain  of  the  fourth 
petition,  they  will  be  under  no  temptation  to  exceed  its 
modest  limits.  It  is  the  old  cure  of  the  Gospel,  which, 
under  the  designation  of  "  the  expulsive  power  of  a  new 
affection,"  Chalmers  showed  to  be  the  power  of  God  unto 
the  salvation  of  the  lost,  and  which  is  equally  applicable 
for  the  purpose  of  saving  the  Church  from  the  blight  of 
worldliness,  the  almost  universal  hankering  for  so  very 
much  more  than  can  be  fairly  thought  of  when  we  pray, 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 

The  same  considerations  are  manifestly  applicable  to 
the  fifth  and  sixth  petitions,  and  the  spiritual  wants  of  a 
personal  kind  which  they  express.  It  is  a  great  mistake 
to  think  that  personal  piety  will  suffer  by  allowing  it  to 
fall  into  the  place  which  has  been  assigned  it  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  The  principle  which  our  Lord  laid  down 
so  often  and  in  such  absolute  terms  is  just  as  applicable 
in  the  spiritual  sphere  as  anywhere  else  :  "  He  that  will 
save  his  life  shall  lose  it ;  and  he  that  will  lose  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it."    What  was  the  reason  that  the 


2  0  CHRISTIAKITY    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

life  of  the  ancliorites  and  hermits  of  old  pi^oved  so  con- 
spicuous a  failure  ?  How  was  it  that  with  all  their  con- 
suming earnestness,  with  all  their  fastings,  with  all  their 
prayers  and  their  rigid  self-denial,  they  had  so  very  hard 
a  battle  to  fight  with  the  depravity  of  their  own  hearts  ? 
Simply  because  they  left  out  or  quite  misunderstood  the 
first  half  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  They  were  contented 
with  "  daily  bread  "  in  the  barest  sense.  Never  did  the 
cry,  "  Forgive  us  our  sins,"  ascend  from  more  earnest 
hearts  than  theirs.  And  never  was  there  more  strenuous 
effort  to  live  in  the  spirit  of  the  prayer,  "  Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil."  And  yet 
what  did  it  amount  to  ? 

"  Lord,  I  have  fasted,  I  liave  prayed, 
And  sackclotli  lias  my  girdle  been  ; 
To  purge  my  soul  I  have  essayed 

With  hunger  blank,  and  vigil  keen  ; 
0  God  of  mercy,  why  am  I 
Still  haunted  by  the  self  I  fly  ?  " 

The  trouble  was,  they  were  not  really  flying  self.  They 
were  pursuing  it.  They  were  occupying  themselves 
wholly  with  it.  Their  great  error  was  the  abandoning 
of  the  field  of  the  world,  giving  up  as  hopeless  the  idea 
of  God's  name  being  hallowed,  His  kingdom  coming,  or 
His  will  being  done  upon  the  earth.  They  were  in  effect, 
though  not  in  intention,  deserters.  In  a  spiritual  as  well 
as  in  a  literal  sense  they  lived  in  caves,  away  from  the 
blessed  sunlight  of  the  heaven,  alike  of  nature  and  of 
grace,  which  bends  over  this  earth  of  ours  ;  and  living  in 
the  dark,  of  course  they  were  always  stumbling,  and  often 
falling,  and  had  no  real  experience  of  the  light  and  the 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

And  if  those  conspicuously  failed  who  made  a  begin- 
ning from  the  fourth  petition,   why   should   we  expect 


CHRISTIANITY    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST.  2  1 

success  if  we  begin  with  the  fifth,  if  we  make  it  our  first 
concern  to  cultivate  our  own  spiritual  life  ?  This  is 
certainly  a  much  more  lofty  ambition  than  the  life  which 
is  devoted  to  the  satisfaction  of  bodily  wants,  or  even  to 
the  gratification  of  the  intellect  and  the  taste ;  and  there 
is  unquestionably  a  nobility  in  the  lives  of  those  who 
make  this  their  great  ambition,  which  is  to  be  admired, 
and  which,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  worthy  of  imitation.  But 
while  we  do  not  deny  the  superiority  of  such  lives  to 
those  of  the  common  run  of  men,  we  do  not  regard  them 
as  satisfying  the  Christian  ideal ;  we  believe  that  the 
Lord's  Prayer  shows  unto  us  "  a  more  excellent  way ;  " 
more  excellent,  not  only  because  it  is  more  noble  to 
"  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness  " 
than  our  own  perfection,  but  also  because  it  is  more 
effectual  for  the  very  purpose  of  self-development.  Let 
us  not  forget  the  element  of  unconsciousness  in  all 
growth.  When  once  the  seed  has  been  sown,  and  com- 
mitted to  the  earth  beneath  and  the  living  powers  of  the 
heaven  which  bends  above  it,  the  cultivator  has  nothing 
to  do  but  to  clear  away  hindrances,  to  remove  obstacles 
out  of  the  way,  and  leave  the  development  to  the  heavenly 
powers.  So  is  it  in  spiritual  husbandry.  And  hence  the 
wisdom  of  what  at  first  sight  may  seem  strange, — the 
negative  look  of  those  parts  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  which 
deal  directly  with  the  sjjiritual  life :  "Forgive  us  our  sins, 
and  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil." 
Why  not  also  a  petition  for  the  positive  graces  of  the 
Christian  character  ?  Not  certaiuly  because  they  are 
unimportant,  but  because  they  will  grow  up  of  them- 
selves as  a  matter  of  course  in  the  soul  that  habitually 
has  a  Godward  look.  The  first  part  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
secures  that  "  looking  unto  Jesus,"  which  is  equivalent 
to  abiding  in  the  sunlight  of  heaven,  and  under  the  rains 


2  2  CHRISTIANITY   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

wliicTi  water  the  thirsty  ground,  and  when  we  come  to 
the  personal  part,  it  is  enough  to  make  sure  that  "  every 
weight  (the  impedimenta  of  which  the  fourth  petition  will 
disencumber  us,  as  well  as  the  burden  of  guilt  of  which 
the  fifth  petition  will  relieve  us)  and  the  sin  which  doth 
so  easily  beset  us "  be  laid  aside.  "  If  any  man  will 
come  after  me,"  says  Christ,  "  let  him  deny  himself,"  put 
self  in  the  background  altogether,  and  so  may  he  most 
effectually  secure  his  own  growth  in  grace. 

We  may  not  undervalue  the  importance  of  the  caution, 
"Watch  and  pray,  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation." 
As  long  as  we  remember  the  last  petition  we  cannot 
forget  the  need  of  watchfulness ;  but  that  watchfulness 
will  avail  very  little  if  we  omit  or  pass  lightly  over  the 
petitions  which  have  gone  before.  To  refer  once  more  to 
the  illustration  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth :  it  is  plain 
that  though  when  one  is  walking  in  the  dark,  very  great 
watchfulness  may  keep  him  from  stumbling,  yet  even 
a  less  degree  of  watchfulness  will  give  a  much  greater 
degree  of  security  to  one  walking  in  the  light.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  we  are  not  really  less  watchful  when  we 
are  walking  in  daylight,  only  our  watchfulness  is  less 
conscious.  When  we  come  to  a  rising  ground  or  a  de- 
pression, a  step  up  or  a  step  down,  a  stone  in  our  way 
or  a  hole  in  the  road,  we  make  the  necessary  allowance 
for  it,  exactly  as  we  should  do  if  we  were  groping  our  way 
with  a  stick  ;  only,  when  we  are  walking  in  the  daylight, 
these  precautions  do  not  occupy  our  thoughts ;  we  can 
prosecute  our  journey  with  scarcely  any  consciousness  of 
the  obstacles  in  our  path,  and  with  scarcely  any  diminu- 
tion of  speed  on  the  most  uneven  road.  And  so  it  is 
in  the  Christian  life.  Let  us  walk  in  the  light  of  true 
loyalty  to  Christ,  enthusiasm  for  His  kingdom,  consecra- 
tion to  His  work ;  and  not  only  shall  we  be  more  easily 


CHRISTIANITY   ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST.  23 

satisfied  with  our  rations,  but  we  sliall  be  able,  with 
greater  safety  and  much  greater  speed,  to  "  run  the  race 
that  is  set  before  us."  Thus  we  find  that  not  only  for 
the  sake  of  the  grand  interests  of  the  earlier  petitions, 
but  even  for  the  sake  of  the  lesser  interests  involved  in 
the  later  ones,  it  is  desirable,  nay  necessary,  to  preserve 
the  order  and  proportions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  setting 
before  us  as  it  does  practical  Christianity  according  to 
Christ. 

We  shall  conclude  by  endeavouring  to  sura  up  the 
bearing  of  what  has  been  advanced  upon  the  progress 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  The  direct  bearing  of  it  is 
sufficiently  obvious.  If  all  Christian  people,  or  even  any 
considerable  proportionof  them,  were  only  to  begin  honestly 
to  try  to  seek  the  kingdom  of  God  first,  the  missionary 
cause  would  receive  an  impulse  altogether  unprecedented. 
From  the  day  that  the  Church  began  to  pray  the  Lord's 
Prayer  as  it  is,  without  reservation,  suppression,  or  re- 
construction, the  difficulties  of  the  Missionary  Societies, 
so  far  as  men  and  means  are  concerned,  would  altogether 
cease. 

The  indirect  effect  would,  I  believe,  be  even  greater. 
There  would  at  once  appear  all  over  the  Church  a  nobler 
type  of  Christianity,  less  vitiated  by  selfishness,  less  dis- 
figured by  self-consciousness.  And  the  spirit  of  sect 
would  perish  from  the  Church :  men  would  learn  to 
distinguish  between  "  my  denomination "  and  "  Thy 
Name,"  "  our  church  "  and  "  Thy  Kingdom,"  "  our  ideas  " 
and  "  Thy  Will." 

And  then  the  most  serious  objections  of  modern  culture, 
some  of  them  well  enough  taken  as  against  much  of  the 
current  Christianity,  would  fall  to  the  ground.  Our  critics 
could  no   longer,    with   any   colour    of   truth,    represent 


24  CHRISTIANITY    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

Christianity  as  a  "  baptized  selfisliness,"  wliich  makes 
it  a  man's  chief  end  to  seek  the  salvation  of  his  own 
little  soul  ;  they  could  no  longer,  with  any  colour  of 
truth,  speak  of  Christians  as  narrow  people,  quite  too 
pious  and  heavenly-minded  to  take  much  interest  in  the 
great  public  questions  of  the  day ;  they  could  no  longer 
charge  us  with  replacing  the  vice  of  worldliness  with 
that  other  one  of  "  other-worldliness,"  belittling  the 
actual  living  present,  and  reserving  for  some  future 
world,  of  which  we  know  little  or  nothing,  the  best  of 
those  energies  which  were  manifestly  given  for  present 
use.  There  is  some  colour  for  these  criticisms,  as  things 
are ;  but  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  foundation  for  one  of 
them  in  the  Christianity  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, — not  a 
shadow  of  foundation  for  one  of  them  in  Christianity 
according  to  Christ.  And  when  our  keen  critics,  after 
inveighing  against  the  selfishness  of  Christianity,  turn 
round  and  inveigh  against  its  unselfishness,  its  "altruism,"  . 
as  they  call  it,  they  will  find  themselves  equally  at  fault. 
Here,  indeed,  especially  when  we  remember  that  this 
objection  of  the  impracticability  of  Christian  altruism 
has  been  advanced  in  the  name  of  the  infant  science  of 
sociology,  we  can  scarcely  help  being  reminded  of  the 
"children  in  the  market-place" "piping"  in  the  one  breath, 
and  "  mourning "  in  the  next,  and  of  those  likened  to 
them,  who  said  of  Christ,  "  He  is  a  gluttonous  man,"  and 
of  John,  "  He  hath  a  devil ; "  for  it  is  often  the  very 
same  people  who  first  accuse  Christianity  of  the  gluttony 
of  selfishness,  and  then  of  the  lunacy  of  pure  altruism. 
"  But  wisdom  is  justified  of  her  children,"  those  of  them 
at  all  events  whose  Christianity  is  that  of  Christ,  And 
if  our  critics  would  only  remember  that  the  altruism  of 
the  New  Testament  is  not  pure  altruism,  but  is  modified 
by  the  important  fact  that  it  is  the  first  duty  of  the 


CHEISTIANITY    ACCOKDING    TO    CHRIST.  25 

Christian  to  "  seek  the  kingdom  of  God,"  they  would  see 
that  there  is  here  a  sufficient  safeguard  against  any  folly 
of  altruism  such  as  would  lead  us  to  give  our  money  to 
every  beggar  on  the  street,  or  to  surrender  our  rights  to 
every  scoundrel  who  chose  to  impose  on  Christian  bene- 
volence and  non-resistance.  Our  Lord,  knowing  the 
native  selfishness  of  the  human  heart,  uses  strong  and 
often  unqualified  language  to  set  before  us  the  claims 
of  our  neighbour  ;  but  it  is  manifest  that  we  are  not 
dealing  intelligently  and  honestly  with  such  instructions 
if  we  do  not  carry  with  us  through  them  all  the  remem- 
brance that  our  first  and  paramount  duty  is  to  the  Lord 
our  God  ;  that  our  first  care  must  be  the  "  hallowing  of 
the  Divine  name,"  our  second  the  "  coming  of  the  Divine 
kingdom,"  our  third  the  "  doing  of  the  Divine  will ;  "  and 
if  only  these  be  first  secured,  we  may  carry  our  altruism 
to  any  length  without  any  injury  either  to  ourselves,  our 
neighbour,  or  society  at  large.  The  best  way  to  answer 
the  objections  of  modern  culture  is  to  hold  aloft  Christi- 
anity according  to  Christ,  to  take  the  Lord's  Prayer  for  our 
guide,  and  especially  to  elevate  to  its  proper  place  that 
grand  enthusiasm  which  teaches  us  to  seek,  far  above  all 
else,  the  promotion  of  the  Divine  glory  over  all  the  earth. 
Finally,  it  is  no  small  matter,  in  view  of  the  change 
of  mind  that  has  come  over  the  majority  of  Christian 
people  since  the  days  when  the  entire  heathen  world  was 
regarded  as  hopelessly  doomed  to  everlasting  misery,  to 
observe  that  the  missionary  enthusiasm,  which  so  fills 
and  inspires  the  Lord's  Prayer,  is  quite  independent  of 
any  views  as  to  the  future  condition  of  the  unevangelised 
heathen.  It  has  been  too  much  the  habit  of  Christian 
people,  in  looking  abroad  upon  the  heathen  world,  to 
regard  it  not  as  a  kingdom  to  be  conquered  for  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  rather  as  a  great  seething   sea 


26  CHRISTIANITY   ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

of  drowning  men,  a  few  of  whom  miglit  be  rescued  from 
the  general  wreck  by  those  whom  the  Church  would 
send  out  on  her  gallant  lifeboat  service ;  and,  of  course, 
as  soon  as  the  idea  gained  currency  that  the  peril  might 
not  be  so  great  or  so  universal  as  was  once  supposed,  the 
enthusiasm  which  had  rested  entirely  on  that  view  of 
the  case  was  necessarily  affected.  But  the  missionary 
enthusiasm  which  finds  its  inspiration  and  expression 
in  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  liable  to  no  such  variation.  The 
idea  it  sets  before  us  is  not  the  salvation  of  a  few 
Indians,  and  Chinamen,  and  Africans,  and  South  Sea 
Islanders  in  the  next  world  :  it  is  the  salvation  here  and 
now  of  all  India,  all  China,  all  Africa,  all  the  islands  of 
the  sea,  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  ;  and  this  alone 
ought  to  be  sufficient  to  stir  the  spirits  of  all  right- 
hearted  men,  even  if  there  were  no  impending  danger  in 
the  next  woi-ld,  which  undoubtedly  there  is,  whatever  we 
may  think  as  to  its  nature  and  extent ;  for  to  say  that 
the  heathen  will  be  judged  according  to  their  light  is  not 
equivalent  to  saying  that  they  will  not  be  judged  at  all. 

This  is  the  conception  of  the  missionary  work  which  is 
found,  not  only  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  but  all  through  the 
Bible.  What  was  the  Gospel  in  Eden  ?  Was  it  the  sal- 
vation of  a  certain  number  of  individuals  ?  No.  It  is  the 
triumph  of  a  great  cause — the  seed  of  the  woman  bruising 
the  head  of  the  serpent.  What  was  the  Gospel  as  preached 
to  Abraham  ?  "  In  thy  seed  shall  all  nations  of  the  earth 
be  blessed."  What  was  the  grandest  of  all  the  promises 
to  Moses  ?  "  As  I  live,  all  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with 
the  glory  of  the  Lord."  When  were  the  prayers  of  David, 
the  son  of  Jesse,  ended  ?  After  he  had  reached  the 
height  of  holiest  longing  in  earnest  prayer  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  that  same  promise :  "  Let  the  whole  earth  be 
filled  with  His  glory."     How  was  it  in  the  days  of  the 


CHRISTIANITY   ACCOEDING   TO    CHEIST.  27 

later  prophets  ?  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord :  It  is  a  light 
thing  that  thou  shouldest  be  my  servant,  to  raise  up  the 
tribes  of  Jacob,  and  to  restore  the  preserved  of  Israel :  I 
will  also  give  thee  for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  that  thou 
mayest  be  my  salvation  unto  the  end  of  the  earth."  So 
is  it  all  through  the  Old  Testament.  And  when  Christ 
came,  He  kept  still  the  same  grand  ideas,  the  same  far- 
reaching  aims,  the  same  "  enthusiasm  of  humanity,"  as 
we  may  call  it,  before  the  minds  of  men.  He  went 
"  everywhere  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom."  We 
do  find  Him  on  occasion  making  the  solemn  appeal,  "  What 
shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
lose  his  own  soul  ?  "  But  for  once  that  He  speaks  about 
the  saving  of  the  soul,  He  speaks  fifty  times  about  "the 
kingdom."  And  then,  having  begun  His  ministry  with 
the  call,  "  Repent  ye,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand,"  He  closes  it  with  the  great  commission,  "  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 
It  is  not  only  the  Lord's  Prayer,  but  the  entire  Bible, 
Old  Testament  and  New,  which  claims  for  missionary 
enthusiasm  the  first  place,  the  throne,  in  the  renewed 
heart.  Is  it,  then,  too  much  to  say  that  the  great  want 
of  the  times,  so  far  as  the  Church  of  Christ  is  concerned, 
is  a  revival,  not  of  religion  in  what  may  be  called  the 
popular  sense,  but  of  Christianity  according  to  Christ ;  a 
Christianity  which  shall  indeed  "  seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God  ;  "  a  Christianity  which  shall,  in  actual  fact,  begin 
with  the  petitions,  "  Hallowed  be  Thy  name.  Thy  king- 
dom come.  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven ;  " 
and,  after  humbly  asking  for  daily  bread,  daily  pardon, 
and  daily  grace,  shall  be  irresistibly  impelled,  by  a  Divine 
attraction,  to  soar  again  to  its  native  heavens  with  these 
old  words  of  adoring  praise,  "  For  Thine  is  the  kingdom, 
and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  for  ever.      Amen  "  ? 


II. 

EVANGELICAL  APOLOGETICS. 

fPHERE  is  much  said  in  these  days  about  the  necessity  of 
a  restatement  of  the  evidences  for  our  Christian  faith 
to  meet  the  -wants  of  the  present  time ;  and  the  idea  is 
often  advanced  in  such  a  way  as  to  imply  some  deprecia- 
tion of  the  labours  of  those  who  have  borne  the  brunt  of 
the  battle  against  infidelity  in  the  past,  and  even  some- 
times to  suggest  that  the  arguments  which  were  once 
supposed  to  be  decisive  no  longer  retain  their  validity. 
Much  of  this  may  be  safely  set  down  to  nineteenth 
century  conceit,  the  notion  that  our  "  thought "  is  so 
"  advanced  "  that  all  old  ideas,  even  those  of  the  giants 
who  were  in  the  earth  in  those  days,  are  too  small  to  fit 
our  greatly  enlarged  intellects. 

And  yet  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that,  as  new 
attacks  are  made,  new  defences  are  needed ;  and  the 
nature  of  the  defence  must  be  determined  by  the  nature 
of  the  attack.  Thus  it  may  come  to  pass  that  even  the 
strongest  and  best  presentation  of  the  evidences,  which 
proved  amply  sufficient  for  the  emergency  which  called 
it  forth,  may  not  be  fully  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  a 
subsequent  encounter.  This  we  take  to  be  the  position 
of  things  at  the  present  time.  Infidelity  has  changed 
the  mode  of  its  attack.  It  has  redoubled  the  vigour  of 
its  onset.  It  has  made  an  alliance  with  forces  which,  in 
all  former  conflicts,  were  hostile  to  it.     Hence  the  call 


EVANGELICAL  APOLOGETICS.         29 

for  restatement  of  tlie  evidences.  But  it  is  our  convic- 
tion that  on  examination  it  will  be  found  tliat  not  the 
substance  of  the  old  arguments  so  much  as  the  method 
of  presentation  needs  reconsideration  ;  and,  further,  that 
the  change  which  is  most  needed  is  in  the  direction  of  a 
more  evangelical  and  biblical  method. 

That  preaching  is  most  evangelical  and  biblical  which 
puts  Christ  in  the  foreground  and  centre,  so  that  His 
Person  and  work  are  always  conspicuous,  and  whatever  is 
said  on  related  subjects  is  introduced  in  such  a  way  as  to 
direct  attention  to,  and  not  away  from,  the  central  figure. 
The  preaching  of  the  Gospel  is  the  preaching  of  Christ  j 
and  whatever  of  biblical  exposition,  or  ethical  disquisition, 
or  doctrinal  discussion  there  may  be  must  gather  round 
Him,  as  it  were,  in  the  rear,  but  never  come  in  front,  so 
as  to  take  the  place  of  prominence. 

It  has  been  different  with  our  Christian  Apologetics. 
In  that  department  it  is  exceedingly  rare  to  find  Christ 
in  the  foregronnd.  That  position  of  honour  is  almost 
invariably  accorded  to  the  Bible  as  a  book,  or  to  Chris- 
tianity as  a  system.  The  first  question  of  Apolo- 
getics has  not  been  whether  Christ  be  the  Son  of  God, 
but  whether  the  Bible  be  the  Word  of  God,  or  whether 
Christianity  be  the  true  religion.  The  usual  course  has 
been,  after  laying  down  the  fundamentals  of  natural 
religion,  and  showing  the  antecedent  probability  of  God's 
giving  some  additional  revelation  to  supplement  that  of 
nature,  and  specially  to  meet  the  wants  of  man  as  a 
sinner,  to  pass  at  once  to  the  Bible  as  the  Revelation 
which  God  has  given  for  the  purpose,  or  else  to  the  com- 
plex idea  of  Christianity  as  a  system,  embracing  no  one 
knows  how  much  of  vague  meaning  and  of  disputed  doc- 
trine. The  result  is,  that,  at  the  very  threshold  of  revealed 
religion,  the  inquirer  is  confronted  with  a  large  and  com- 


30  EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS. 

plicated  and  much-debated  subject,  presenting  innumerable 
difficulties  which  it  is  easy  to  raise  and  hard  to  answer,  by 
which  he  is  discouraged  and  repelled  at  the  very  outset. 
It  is  true  that  the  mischief  has  been,  to  a  great  extent, 
neutralised  by  the  care  which  has  generally  been  taken 
to  remind  the  inquirer  that,  while  the  road  is  long,  and 
toilsome,  and  difficult  by  the  way  of  the  intellect,  it  is 
not  so  by  the  way  of  the  heart ;  that  a  sinner  may  come 
to  Christ  without  any  preliminary  investigations  about 
the  Bible  or  Christianity,  and,  by  a  direct  and  immediate 
exercise  of  faith  in  Him,  I'eceive  such  inward  light,  and 
enjoy  such  an  experience  of  saving  grace,  that  many  of 
his  difficulties  will  be  removed  at  once,  and  those  which 
remain  will  not  interfere  with  his  peace  and  progress. 
But  the  question  seems  scarcely  to  have  been  raised 
whether  it  is  actually  necessary  that  the  path  of  the 
intellect  should  be  so  much  more  circuitous.  If  an  in- 
quirer who,  in  addition  to  the  belief  in  God  which  most 
men  have,  has  a  sense  of  moral  need  springing  from  a 
consciousness  of  sin,  is  at  once  pointed  to  Christ  without 
any  further  preparation,  why  may  not  an  inquirer  who 
is  intellectually  convinced  of  the  being  of  God,  and  the 
need  there  is  of  some  further  revelation,  be  at  once  led 
to  Christ,  without  being  required  first  to  wrestle  with 
questions  about  the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  Moses 
or  the  Gospel  of  John,  or  with  the  question  whether 
the  complex  creed  which  enters  into  his  instructor's 
or  his  own  idea  of  "  Christianity "  be  all  the  truth  of 
God  ?  Why  may  not  the  first  and  main  inquiry  be, 
whether  Christ,  the  Christ  of  history,  be  the  Revelation 
of  God  which  the  soul  needs,  whether  He  be  not  the 
Truth  of  which  the  man  is  in  search  ?  When  we  are 
asked  the  way  of  salvation,  we  do  not  say,  "  God  has 
revealed  Himself  in  the  Bible,  therefore  believe  the  Bible;  " 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  3  I 

■nor,  "  Christianity  is  the  true  religion,  therefore  accept  it." 
No ;  we  present  Christ  at  once,  using  only  so  much  of 
the  contents  of  the  Bible,  perhaps  only  a  few  sentences, 
as  may  be  necessary  to  get  the  Saviour  before  the  mind 
and  heart,  knowing  full  well  that,  if  once  He  is  accepted, 
there  will  be  no  fear  for  the  rest.  Now,  is  there  any 
reason  why,  in  the  systematic  treatment  of  the  evidences, 
we  should  have  ever  so  much  to  say  and  to  prove  about  the 
Bible  as  an  inspired  book,  or  Christianity  as  the  true  re- 
ligion, before  we  have  a  word  to  say  about  Christ  Himself? 
Is  there  any  reason  why  our  Apologetics,  presenting  the 
truth  to  the  intellect,  should  be  less  evangelical  in  its 
method  than  our  Homiletics,  presenting  the  truth  to  the 
heart  ? 

As  an  illustration  of  how  little  has  been  thought  of 
this  order  in  the  past,  we  may  refer  to  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  spiritual  works  on  the  evidences,  that  of  Dr. 
Hopkins.  The  subject  of  method  was  before  his  mind 
quite  prominently,  as  is  evident  from  his  third  chapter, 
in  which  he  gives  excellent  reasons  for  taking  the  "  in- 
ternal evidences  "  before  the  "  external,"  thus  reversing 
the  order  which  had  been  previously  in  use — a  change 
which  was  a  great  improvement  in  the  evangelical  direc- 
tion. Yet  even  he  elaborates  nine  arguments  for  Chris- 
tianity before  he  presents  "  the  condition,  character,  and 
claims  of  Christ ; "  and  when  he  does  reach  this  point, 
he  does  not  give  it  a  separate,  substantive  position,  but 
simply  brings  it  in  as  the  tenth  and  last  argument  of  the 
series  of  internal  evidences  of  Christianity.  And  it  is 
not  only  in  the  more  formal  treatises  covering  the  whole 
ground,  that  the  claims  of  Christ  are  postponed  till  those 
of  the  Bible  or  Christianity  are  considered ;  but  even  in 
those  monographs  where  attention  is  restricted  to  the 
Christological  part  of   the  argument,  the  same  order  of 


32  EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS. 

thouglit  will  sliow  itself.  Take,  as  an  instance  of  tins, 
the  admirable  little  work  of  Dr.  W.  Lindsay  Alexander, 
of  Edinburgli,  entitled  "  Christ  and  Christianity."  The 
title  would  certainly  warrant  the  expectation  that  the 
order  of  thought  would  be,  Christ  first,  afterward  Christi- 
anity. But  it  is  not.  He  begins  by  speaking  of  Christi- 
anity as  "  the  one  religion  for  man,"  and  then  goes  on  to 
say  (p.  9),  "  Let  it  be  remembered  that  Christianity 
comes  to  us  in  an  objective  form — in  the  form  of  a 
book ; "  and,  further  on,  "  It  is  not  only  to  certain  car- 
dinal verities  that  the  Christian  must  yield  his  cordial 
assent,  but  to  all  tilings  lohicli  are  loritten  in  the  hoolc. 
...  It  is  only  as  he  has  satisfied  himself  on  solid 
grounds  that  the  book,  as  a  book,  is  entitled  to  his 
homage,  that  he  will  be  prepared  to  bow  to  it  with  that 
docility  which  is  required."  (The  italics  are  his  own.) 
It  is  not  till  the  second  part  that  the  Person  of  Christ 
comes  in  at  all.  Dr.  Bayne's  "  Testimony  of  Christ  to 
Christianity  "  presents  the  claims  of  the  personal  Christ 
with  great  directness  and  power ;  but  is  not  the  title  he 
uses  significant  ?  The  idea  evidently  is  that  Christi- 
anity is  the  thing  to  be  proved,  and  that  Christ  is  a  witness 
to  prove  it.  The  question  does  not  seem  to  have  sug- 
gested itself,  whether  Christ  Himself  be  not  Christianity, 
and  what  we  call  Christianity  a  witness  to  Him  rather 
than  He  to  it. 

The  method  for  which  we  contend  is  to  present  Christ, 
and  the  claims  which  He  makes  on  our  confidence,  first. 
Let  the  first  effort  be  to  lead  the  inquirer  to  believe  in 
Him.  Let  Moses  and  Joshua  stand  aside,  till  a  greater 
than  either  is  introduced.  Let  even  the  Evangelists  be 
nothing  more  than  good,  trustworthy  witnesses,  to  begin 
with.  Few  candid  men  will  stumble  at  that,  and  even  if 
they  do,  they  are  more  likely  to  be  captivated  by  the 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  $^ 

wonders  of  the  life  and  character  of  Him  to  whom  they 
bear  witness,  than  convinced  by  any  argument  for  their 
insjDiration  that  can  at  that  stage  be  presented.  It  will 
be  time  enough  to  consider  the  less  obvious  arguments 
for  the  divine  authority  of  the  witnesses,  after  the  more 
obvious  arguments  for  the  divine  authority  of  Him,  to 
whom  they  witness,  have  been  presented  in  all  their 
strength.  It  is  important  that  the  mind  of  the  inquirer 
be  directed  to  Christ  as  speedily,  and  kept  there  as 
steadily,  as  possible.  After  His  claims  ai-e  felt  and 
acknowledged,  it  will  be  easy  to  satisfy  him  as  to  the 
divine  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  all  that  can  be 
fairly  included  under  Christianity  as  a  system. 

On  behalf  of  this  method  we  have  to  urge,  first,  that  it 
is  the  scriptural  method.  The  apostles  had  to  deal  with 
intellectual  doubters,  as  well  as  with  those  who  were 
morally  averse  to  the  Gospel ;  yet  they  invariably  pre- 
sented Christ  as  the  first  object  of  faith.  They  made 
frequent  use  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  it  is  true, 
especially  in  dealing  with  those  who  were  already 
grounded  in  the  belief  of  them ;  but  we  never  find  them 
urging  belief  in  the  Scriptures  as  the  first  thing,  and 
faith  in  Christ  simply  as  the  result  of  their  acceptance. 
When  Paul  preached  on  Mars  Hill,  he  did  not  try  first 
to  convince  his  heathen  audience  of  the  divine  authority 
of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  but  passed  at  once  from  the 
common  ground  of  the  truths  of  natural  religion,  to  the 
setting  forth  of  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection.  No  one, 
indeed,  would  gather  from  anything  in  the  apostolic '/ 
writings  that  their  idea  was  that  God  had  revealed  Him- 
self  in  a  book,  and  that,  by  receiving  that  book,  a  Saviour 
would  be  found  in  its  pages.  It  was  rather  that  God  had 
revealed  Himself  in  His  Son,  who  is  therefore  urged  on 
the  acceptance  of  menj   and  when  the  testimony  of  the 

C 


34         EVANGELICAL  APOLOGETICS. 

propliets  or  tlieir  own  witness  is  referred  to,  it  is  not  as 
an  objective  revelation  to  be  received  as  sucL,  but  simply 
as  an  inspired  testimony  to  Him.  The  idea  is  not :  God, 
who  has  given  us  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  now 
preparing  for  us  the  books  of  the  New ;  but,  "  God,  who 
at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  in  time  past 
unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days 
spoken  unto  us  by  (literally,  in)  His  Son."  And  it  will 
be  remembered  that  the  apostle  Peter,  speaking  of  those 
prophets,  represents  them  as  "  searching  what  or  what 
manner  of  time  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  which  was  in  them, 
did  signify,  when  it  testified  beforehand  the  sufferiugs  of 
Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should  follow,"  so  that,  in  their 
view,  the  personal  Christ  was  regarded  as  the  Alpha  and 
Omega  even  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  they  deriv- 
ing authority  from  Him  rather  than  He  from  them. 
Most  explicit  of  all  is  the  apostle  John,  who  insists  so 
strongly,  both  in  his  Gospel  and  in  his  First  Epistle,  that 
the  personal  Christ  is  the  Word,  that  "  the  Life  was  the 
Light  of  men."  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave" 
— not  a  book  or  a  religion,  but — "  His  only  begotten 
Son." 

Most  significant  of  all  is  the  example  of  Christ  Him- 
self. While  He  very  frequently  refers  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  as  of  divine  authority.  He  never  presses 
them  as  an  objective  revelation  to  be  received  as  such. 
He  always  guides  the  faith  of  His  hearers  directly  to 
Himself.  In  the  one  passage  where  He  seems  to  set 
forth  the  duty  of  searching  the  Scriptures  (John  v.  39), 
the  reason  He  gives  is  not  that  they  are  an  objective 
revelation — He  rather  discourages  that  idea  by  the  signi- 
ficant words  :  "  in  them  yc  thmJc  ye  have  eternal  life  " — but 
simply  this :  "  for  they  are  they  which  testify  of  me." 
When  He  sets  forth  the  order  of  faith,  it  is  not :   "Ye 


EVANGELICAL    APOLOGETICS.  3  5 

believe  in  the  Old  Testament,  believe  also  in  the  New ;  " 
but,  "  Ye  believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me."  And  still 
more  pointedly  :  "  I  am  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life."  We  do  not  forget  when  we  are  preaching  the 
Gospel,  that  Christ  said,  "  I  am  the  Way."  We  do  not 
forget,  when  we  are  ministering  to  believers,  that  He 
said,  "  I  am  the  Life."  Why  should  we  forget,  when  we 
are  dealing  with  doubters,  that  He  said,  "  I  am  the 
TRUTH  "  ?  The  words  of  the  risen  Saviour,  in  the  opening 
passage  of  the  Apocalypse,  indicate  the  true  scriptural 
order,  alike  of  sequence  and  importance  :  "  I  am  Alpha 
and  Omega,  the  First  and  the  Last ;  and  what  thou  seest, 
write  in  a  book." 

Eef erring  to  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
should  afterward  speak  through  the  apostles,  Christ  said 
that  He  would  not  speak  of  Himself,  but  would  testify  of 
Him.  We  have  a  striking  illustration  of  this  in  the  fact 
that  those  Scriptures  which  come  to  us  through  inspira- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost,  call  so  little  attention  to  them- 
selves in  any  part,  but  always  keep  the  person  of  Christ 
as  the  great  object  on  which  the  minds  of  men  should 
rest.  In  the  Gospels,  how  entirely  is  the  personality  of 
the  authors,  and  even  the  agency  of  the  Spirit  Himself, 
kept  out  of  sight,  so  that  the  readers  may  see  "  Jesus 
only."  And  so  with  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  apostle  Paul  indeed  was  constrained,  by  the 
peculiarity  of  his  position,  and  in  consequence  of  certain 
objections  which  had  been  raised  to  his  official  authority, 
to  insist  upon  the  fact  that  he  was  a  fully  accredited 
apostle  and  qualified  to  testify  the  things  of  Christ ;  but 
even  with  him  this  was  exceptional,  and  evidently  dis- 
tasteful, while  no  one  is  more  careful  than  he  to  put 
forward  the  personal  Christ  as  the  great  object  of  faith, 
and  the  sole  foundation  on  which  the  Christian  temple 


36  EVANGELICAL  APOLOGETICS. 

should  be  I'eared.  And,  when  he  has  occasion  to  speak 
of  the  authority  and  value  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  that 
passage  which  has  been  considered  the  locus  classicus  of 
the  doctrine  of  Inspiration  (2  Tim.  iii.  15,  16),  he  is 
careful  to  urge  the  central  importance  of  "  faith  which  is 
in  Christ  Jesus." 

While  little  attention  is  called  by  the  inspired  writers 
to  themselves  or  their  writings,  there  is  still  less  said  of 
Christianity  as  a  system.  There  is  a  striking  absence  of 
all  those  abstract  terms  with  which  all  modern  Christian 
literature,  and  especially  our  apologetic  literature,  is  so 
profusely  adorned.  The  word  "  Christianity "  does  not 
occur  at  all,  and  we  can  think  of  no  expression  which 
can  be  fairly  considered  its  equivalent.  We  look  in  vain 
for  any  reference  to  ' '  the  Christian  religion."  The  word 
"  religion "  occurs  in  only  three  places,  and  in  none  of 
them  is  it  used  in  the  comprehensive  sense  in  which  we 
use  it  now.  It  may  seem  to  some  strange,  that  the  New 
Testament  could  have  been  written,  from  beginning  to 
end,  without  any  use  of  words  which  we  find  necessary 
on  every  page  of  our  writings  which  refer  to  the  same 
subjects.  The  explanation  is  very  significant.  Where 
we  should  write  "Christianity"  the  apostles  write  "Christ." 
Instead  of  "  the  Christian  religion,"  they  write,  "  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,"  or  "  the  truth  in  Jesus,"  or  simply 
"  the  faith,"  meaning  the  faith  which  has  Christ  for  its 
object.  From  all  which  it  seems  sufficiently  obvious  that 
the  scriptural  method  of  presenting  the  truth  to  the 
intellect,  as  well  as  to  the  conscience  and  heart,  is  to 
put  Christ  Himself  always  in  the  front.  The  evangelical 
method  of  apologetics  is  certainly  the  scriptural  method. 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  consider  the  working  advan- 
tages of  the  method  we  are  urging.  And  we  shall  find 
it  of  great  value   for   the   accomplishment  of  both  the 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  37 

great  purposes  of  Christian  Apologetics,  which  are  to 
guide  the  inquirer  into  the  truth,  and  to  defend  the  truth 
against  its  assailants. 

The  main  advantage,  for  purposes  of  instruction,  is  one 
which  has  been  already  adverted  to  in  explaining  the 
method,  viz. :  this,  that  it  is  the  natural  order  of  thought, 
from  the  simpler  to  the  more  complex.  The  importance 
of  a  simple  and  progressive  order  of  thought  can  scarcely 
be  exaggerated.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Des  Cartes, 
who  may  be  considered  as  the  founder  of  modern  philo- 
sophy in  its  critical  development,  began  his  investigations 
with  the  subject  of  Method,  and  published  as  the  Intro- 
duction to  his  works  "  A  Discourse  on  the  Method  of 
Rightly  Conducting  the  Reason."  In  that  discourse  he 
lays  down  two  leading  rules,  one  negative  and  the  other 
positive.  The  negative  rule  is  the  famous  one  about 
doubting  everything  to  begin  with,  and  so  reducing  the 
mind,  so  far  as  its  beliefs  are  concerned,  to  a  sheet  of 
white  paper.  The  positive  rule  is  as  follows  :  "  To  con- 
duct my  thoughts  in  such  order  that,  by  commencing 
with  objects  the  simplest  and  easiest  to  know,  I  might 
ascend  by  little  and  little,  and,  as  it  were,  step  by  step, 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  more  complex."  Now,  modern 
scepticism  is  so  faithful  in  its  application  of  the  Cartesian 
negative  that  we  cannot  meet  it  to  advantage  without  a 
faithful  application  of  the  Cartesian  positive.  But  the 
positive  rule  of  Des  Cartes,  obvious  and  obviously  im- 
portant as  it  is,  seems  to  have  been  little  regarded  by 
the  majority  of  writers  on  the  Christian  evidences.  The 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  one  of  the  most  difficult 
questions  in  the  entire  compass  of  theology.  It  cannot 
be  discussed  and  settled  without  encountering  a  multitude 
of  difficulties,  many  of  which  may  prove  serious  stumbling- 
blocks  in  the  way  of  an  inquirer,  who  has  as  yet  no  solid 


38  EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS. 

ground  on  wLicli  to  stand.  On  the  other  hand,  no  such 
difficulties  lie  in  the  way  of  the  presentation  of  Christ. 
Even  infidels,  who  have  shown  themselves  most  un- 
scrupulous in  attacking  the  Bible,  dare  not  attack  Him. 
His  credentials,  apart  from  the  miracles  He  wrought, 
which  being  more  difficult,  ought  of  course  to  be  pre- 
sented later,  are  easily  exhibited  and  easily  recognised. 
His  life  and  character  shine  out  with  such  lustre  that 
even  the  most  strongly  prejudiced  will  be  unable  entirely 
to  shut  their  eyes  to  it.  There  are,  of  course,  moral 
obstacles  to  the  acceptance  of  Christ,  which  no  method  of 
presentation  can  overcome,  which  only  the  Spirit  of  God 
can  remove ;  but,  so  far  as  the  intellect  is  concerned,  it 
would  seem  a  much  more  hopeful  course  to  begin  with 
the  revelation  which  God  has  given  of  Himself  in  the 
man  Christ  Jesus,  and  from  that  as  a  vantage  ground,  to 
advance  to  the  belief  of  all  that  holy  men  of  old,  moved 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  have  written,  than  to  attempt  to 
reach  the  goal  by  the  reverse  method. 

It  is  not  forgotten,  that  there  is  a  very  wide  interval 
between  that  admiration  of  Christ  as  a  man,  which  no 
intelligent  person  can  refuse,  and  that  trust  in  Him,  as 
the  Son  of  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world,  which  true 
faith  in  Him  implies.  But  does  not  the  one  naturally 
lead  to  the  other  ?  And  is  not  the  inquirer  far  more 
likely  to  grow  into  this  faith  by  the  contemplation  of 
Christ  Himself,  than  to  reach  it  by  first  assuring  himself 
that  the  Scriptures  are  the  Word  of  God,  and  then  that 
they  dogmatically  teach  the  Deity  of  Christ  ?  It  is  in- 
structive to  notice  how  our  Lord  Himself  dealt  in  this 
matter  with  His  disciples.  It  is  evident  that  at  first  they 
had  no  adequate  idea  of  His  Divine  dignity.  But  instead 
of  dogmatically  teaching  them  the  truth  in  relation  to 
His  Person,  He  led  them   gradually  uj)  to  it  by  manifest- 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  39 

ing  Himself  to  them.  After  they  had  been  some  timo 
with  Him,  we  find  them,  in  amazement  at  the  calming  of 
the  lake,  saying  one  to  another,  "  What  manner  of  man 
is  this,  that  even  the  winds  and  the  sea  obey  Him  ?  "  It 
was  not  till  the  critical  interview  at  Csesarea  Philippi, 
well  on  in  His  ministry,  that  the  pointed  question  was 
put,  "  Whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ?"  and  the  answer  came, 
"  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God."  In 
the  same  way  the  sincere  inquirer  (for  it  is  only  the 
sincere  inquirer  we  are  now  thinking  of)  will  be  much 
more  likely  to  reach  the  truth  in  regard  to  Christ's 
Divinity  by  being  pointed  to  Christ  Himself,  and  led  to 
dwell  upon  His  claims  and  credentials  as  the  Messiah, 
than  by  having  his  attention  diverted  to  the  large  ques- 
tion o£  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  in  order  that 
after  he  is  satisfied  on  that  question,  he  may  be  con- 
strained to  accept  the  other  on  the  authority  of  an  in- 
spired dogmatic  statement. 

But  it  may  be  objected  here,  that  since  in  order  to 
present  Christ  at  all  we  must  make  use  of  the  New 
Testament,  or  at  least  a  part  of  it,  it  would  seem  more 
natural  to  begin  with  the  Old,  and  thus  follow  the  order 
which  God  Himself  has  followed  in  unfolding  His  truth 
to  men.  In  order  to  meet  this  objection,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  distinguish  between  the  dogmatic  and  tho 
historic  use  of  the  Bible.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  sup- 
pose that,  by  postponing  the  question  as  to  the  divine 
authority  of  the  Scriptures,  we  preclude  ourselves  the  use 
of  the  books  either  of  the  Old  Testament  or  of  the  New. 
Time  was  indeed  when  there  seemed  to  be  only  the  two 
alternatives,  when  the  prevalent  infidelity  represented  the 
Scriptures  as  the  work  of  impostors,  who  fraudulently 
invented  the  whole  thing,  history  and  all.  But  it  is  far 
otherwise  now.     The  infidelity  of  the  day  accepts  in  the 


40  EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS. 

main  the  Scripture  history.  It  takes  great  liberties  with 
it  indeed,  especially  in  the  way  of  "  eliminating "  the 
miraculous  element  from  it ;  but  it  never  attempts  to  do 
away  with  it  altogether.  After  the  most  relentless  of  the 
literary  and  historic  critics  have  done  their  worst,  enough 
is  left  to  show  a  providential  preparation  for  the  coming 
Christ ;  and  that  is  all  that  is  needed  to  begin  with. 
After  all,  the  framework  of  the  Jewish  history  is  all  that 
is  absolutely  essential  to  the  Christian  Apologist,  and  that 
he  can  have  without  any  controversy,  and  without  en- 
countering the  storm  of  opposition  which  the  attempt  ab 
initio  to  establish  the  dogmatic  authoi'ity  of  the  Old 
Testament  will  inevitably  raise.  It  is  a  significant  fact, 
that  even  the  evangelist  Matthew,  writing  specially  for 
the  Jews,  and  having  so  prominently  before  his  mind  the 
idea  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
should  begin  his  gospel,  not  with  a  list  of  the  books  of 
the  Old  Testament,  but  with  a  genealogy ;  while  the 
other  evangelists  make  only  the  briefest  references  to  the 
prophets  who  have  gone  before,  and  proceed  at  once  to 
set  the  man  Christ  Jesus  before  their  readers.  What  we 
contend  for  is,  not  that  the  Bible  be  closed,  but  that 
when  it  is  first  opened,  it  be  used,  not  as  a  dogmatic 
revelation,  but  as  simple  history ;  and  that  only  so  much 
of  it  be  used  as  may  seem  necessary  in  order  to  bring  the 
Person  of  Christ  before  the  inquirer's  mind,  so  that  his 
thoughts  may  rest  upon  Him,  until  he  see  His  glory, 
"  the  glory  as  of  the  Only  Begotten  of  the  Father."  Then 
the  way  is  prepared  for  his  receiving  the  Holy  Spirit, 
Whose  work  it  is  to  guide  into  all  the  truth — all  the 
truth  which  is  incidentally  unfolded  along  the  line  of 
that  historical  development  which  is  the  main  feature  of 
the  written  Word. 

Further,  by  following  this  method,  we  put  ourselves 


EVANGELICAL    APOLOGETICS.  4  I 

in  a  position  to  deal  most  effectually  with  certain  a  'priori 
objections,  in  which  the  infidelity  of  the  time  intrenches 
itself.  Chief  of  these  is  the  alleged  utter  improbability 
of  the  miraculous.  We  shall  come  to  this  by  and  by. 
Let  us  first  look  at  a  more  sweeping,  though  perhaps 
less  deeply-rooted  prejudice.  We  refer  to  the  alleged 
improbability  of  God's  revealing  Himself  in  a  book, 
especially  a  book  which  has  grown  np  in  the  incidental, 
not  to  say  accidental,  way  the  Bible  has,  and  which  has 
been  left  to  the  ordinary  chances  of  history  for  its  pre- 
servation and  transmission,  without  even  the  precaution 
which  was  taken  with  the  Decalogue,  of  having  at  least 
one  authentic  copy  engraven  in  stone — a  book,  more- 
over, which  has,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  given  rise  to 
endless  differences  of  opinion,  even  among  those  who 
thoroughly  believe  and  truly  love  it,  as  to  what  its  precise 
teaching  is  on  many  subjects  that  cannot  be  regarded 
as  of  slight  importance.  Now  the  way  in  which  objec- 
tions of  this  kind  have  been  usually  dealt  with,  has  been 
to  point  out  that  we  are  not  the  proper  judges  as  to  the 
form  or  style  or  attendant  circumstances  of  the  revelation 
which  God  may  be  pleased  to  give  us.  All  which  is  per- 
fectly true.  But  is  it  not  far  better  if  we  can  take  away 
the  entire  ground  of  the  objection  by  showing  that  the 
Bible  is  not  tlu  revelation  God  has  given,  but  the  record 
of  it ;  that  the  revelation  which  God  has  given,  and  which 
He  calls  upon  us  to  accept,  is  not  the  written,  but  the 
Living  Word  ;  and  that  the  main  object  of  the  inspired 
Scriptures  is  to  point  men  to  Him,  which  purpose  they 
serve  quite  as  well  as  if  they  had  been  engraven  in  stone 
and  preserved  in  the  pyramids,  and  far  better  than  if 
they  had  dropped  all  stereotyped  out  of  heaven  ? 

By  this  method  of  reply  not  only  is  the  alleged  im- 
probability disposed    of,   but   it  can   be   shown  that  the 


42  EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS. 

probabilities  are  all  in  favour  of  the  very  form  of  revela- 
tion wliicli  has  been  used.  It  is  plain  that,  if  God  would 
reveal  Himself  at  all,  it  must  be  through  some  of  the 
finite  things  with  which  we  are  familiar ;  and,  inasmuch 
as,  of  all  the  finite  existences  with  which  we  are  familiar, 
a  pure  and  true  human  life  is  the  very  highest,  it  will  be 
readily  seen  that  a  life,  such  as  that  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
is  the  best  conceivable  method  for  the  revelation  of 
God,  and  therefore  the  most  natural  and  most  probable. 
Such  a  revelation  can  be  shown  also  to  be  the  only  kind 
of  one  which  is  fully  suited  to  the  wants  of  our  nature. 
We  shall  see  this  if  we  compare  some  of  the  different 
ways  in  which  we  get  to  know  one  another.  We  can 
learn  something  of  our  fellow-men  by  seeing  what  their 
hands  have  made ;  but  really  very  little.  We  can  judge 
of  a  carpenter's  skill  by  inspecting  his  workshop  ;  but  we 
cannot  thus  get  acquainted  with  himself.  We  may  pro- 
nounce some  opinion  on  an  artist  by  visiting  his  studio 
in  his  absence ;  but  we  cannot  thus  know  the  man.  It 
is  only  a  very  little  way  toward  knowing  a  person  that 
the  sight  of  his  works  will  carry  us.  Words  are  another 
medium  of  acquaintance.  It  is  possible  to  learn  more 
about  a  person  from  the  words  he  speaks,  than  from  the 
things  he  makes.  But  even  words,  however  much  of 
revelation  there  may  be  in  them,  are  not  the  ultimate 
revelation  of  a  person.  We  want  besides  to  see  his 
doings.  To  know  him  thoroughly  he  must  live  before 
us.  We  do  not  really  know  the  man,  until  we  are 
acquainted  with  his  life.  All  which  points  to  the  need 
of  a  Divine  Life  as  a  revelation  of  God. 

We  might  even  state  the  case  on  the  lower  ground  of 
form.  Most  sceptics  will  readily  sympathise  with  the 
appeal  of  Philip  to  his  Lord  :  "  Show  us  the  Father,  and 
it  sufficeth  us."     Consider  then  that,  in  order  to  meet 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  43 

this  reasonable  appeal  (for,  if  He  be  our  Father,  why- 
should  He  not  show  Himself  to  us  ?),  it  is  necessary 
that  there  be  some  visible  form ;  and  if  some  visible 
form,  it  needs  little  consideration  to  decide  which  it  is 
most  likely  to  be.  For  is  not  the  human  form  the 
noblest  and  most  expressive  we  know  anything  of?  Our 
artists  paint  angels,  it  is  true,  but  is  it  not  with  human 
forms  and  faces  ?  As  for  the  wings,  it  is  a  question 
whether  they  would  not  be  better  angels  without  them. 
The  art,  at  all  events,  in  painting  a  good  angel  is  not  in 
producing  the  wings,  but  in  drawing  the  face  and  the 
form.  It  is  in  that  which  is  human  in  the  picture  that 
the  glory  and  the  beauty  are  found.  Thus,  if  God  is 
to  reveal  Himself  at  all,  so  as  to  come  within  the  range 
of  our  knowledge,  which  is  just  what  the  sceptic  is  dis- 
posed to  insist  on,  reason  would  lead  us  to  expect  that 
it  would  be  in  the  form  of  a  man ;  and,  inasmuch  as  the 
idea  of  a  spectral  form  is  out  of  the  question,  we  are 
led  to  the  expectation  that  it  would  be  in  the  form  of  a 
living  man.  And  there  He  is !  There  He  stands,  eyes 
beaming  with  highest  intelligence,  face  wreathed  in  the 
most  attractive  smile,  heart  beating  with  the  warmest 
love,  voice  soft  and  tremulous  with  suppressed  emotion,  as 
in  tenderest  tones  He  speaks,  and  says  in  answer  to  the 
sceptical  disciple's  appeal :  "  Have  I  been  so  long  time 
Avith  thee,  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known  me,  Philip  ?  He 
that  hath  seen  Me,  hath  seen  the  Father." 

After  having  shown  the  antecedent  probability  of  God's 
revealing  Himself  in  a  human  life,  how  easy  and  natural 
it  is  to  pass  on,  and  show  that  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth is  in  eveiy  respect  the  kind  of  life  which  one  would 
reasonably  expect  as  a  revelation  of  God  ;  that,  as  a  simple 
matter  of  history,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  He  not  only 
made  the   claim,   but    exhibited  all  the  credentials   that 


44  EVANGELICAL    APOLOGETICS. 

could  be  reasonably  asked :  superior  wisdom,  superior 
power,  superior  purity ;  and  all  these  so  immeasurably 
superior  tliat  they  cannot  be  reasonably  assigned  to  human 
genius,  strength,  and  virtue ;  so  much  so,  that  those  who 
will  only  look  steadfastly  at  Him,  as  He  is  exhibited  in 
the  simple  pages  of  the  four  evangelists,  pages  which  bear 
the  stamp  of  truth  on  them  to  the  candid  reader  apart 
from  any  theory  of  inspiration,  must  surely  be  constrained 
to  say  with  the  centurion :  "  Truly,  this  was  the  Son  of 
God!" 

We  do  not,  of  course,  deny  that  there  are  difficulties 
in  the  thought  of  "  the  Word  made  flesh,"  but  they  are 
difficulties  of  an  entirely  different  kind  from  those  which 
meet  us  when  we  make  God  revealed  in  the  written  Word 
the  first  thought.  The  difficulties  connected  with  the 
manifestation  of  God  in  human  likeness  are  difficulties 
which  can  be  readily  shown  to  inhere  in  the  nature  of 
the  subject,  difficulties  pertaining  to  the  necessary  con- 
ditions of  the  revelation  of  the  Infinite  in  terms  of  the 
finite.  And,  besides,  these  difficulties  cannot  be  avoided 
on  any  method  of  presentation ;  whereas,  when  we  take 
the  more  circuitous  route,  we  have  to  encounter  a  whole 
array  of  Bible  difficulties  before  reaching  the  Incarnation 
at  all,  and  when  we  do  reach  it,  it  is  not  in  the  form  of 
a  substantive  revelation,  but  as  one  of  many  miracles  or 
one  of  many  dogmas,  resting  with  all  the  others  on  the 
authority  of  the  book. 

This  is  not  mere  theorising.  The  case  of  a  very  in- 
telligent and  earnest  young  man  is  here  recalled,  whose 
great  difficulty  was  the  story  of  the  Incarnation,  which  he 
had  been  taught  to  look  upon  as  one  of  the  Bible  miracles, 
to  be  accepted  solely  on  the  ground  of  its  infallibility. 
Beinof  troubled  with  difficulties  about  the  Bible  in  the 
first  place,  to  which  was  added  his  perplexity  about  the 


EVANGELICAL  APOLOGETICS.         45 

"  miracle  "  of  the  Incarnation,  lie  felt  as  if  there  were 
two  great  mountains  between  him  and  Christ,  which  he 
vainly  tried  to  scale.  But  as  soon  as  the  thought  was 
suggested  to  him  to  take  the  Incarnation  first,  not  as  a 
mere  miracle,  but  as  a  substantive  revelation,  he  was  in- 
telligent enough  to  see  that,  instead  of  being  a  stumbling- 
block,  it  was  the  very  thing  he  was  in  search  of;  and 
then,  with  a  clear  and  firm  faith  in  Christ  as  the  Son  of 
God,  it  was,  of  course,  much  easier  for  him  to  deal  with 
his  difiiculties  in  other  parts  of  the  Scriptures. 

This  leads  us  now  to  notice  the  vantage  ground  we 
may  have  in  dealing  with  that  bugbear  of  modern 
scepticism :  the  miraculous.  When  the  Bible  as  a 
revelation  is  represented  as  the  ultimate  foundation  of 
everything,  all  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  are  on  the  same 
evidential  footing,  and  just  as  much  depends  on  what 
you  can  say  about  the  most  difficult  miracle  of  the  Old 
Testament,  as  about  the  Resurrection  itself.  The  sceptic 
may  select  his  point  of  attack  at  will,  because  the  position 
taken  obliges  you  to  maintain  all.  But  when  Chi-ist  is 
presented  as  the  Revelation  of  God,  we  do  not  need  in 
considering  His  claims  to  touch  any  of  the  miracles 
except  those  of  the  Gospels.  Not  that  any  doubt  is  cast 
on  those  recorded  in  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  but  simply 
that  the  consideration  of  these  belongs  to  a  later  part  of 
the  subject.  The  question  being  simply  concerning 
Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  it  would  be  manifestly  irrele- 
vant to  take  up  the  consideration  of  any  other  miracles 
than  those  wrought  by  Himself.  And  it  is  probable 
that  few  of  those  who  have  happily  been  well  established 
in  their  faith  from  their  earliest  years,  can  have  any  idea 
what  a  relief  it  would  be  to  many  an  inquirer  to  find 
that  he  can  reach  Christ  without  having  to  climb  the 
mountain  of  Gibeon,  or  descend  into  the  valley  of  Aijalon; 


4-6  EVANGELICAL    APOLOGETICS. 

aTid  what  a  luxury  to  hold  his  faith  in  the  Son  of  God  in 
such  a  fashion  that  a  sneer  about  the  burning  bush  or  the 
lions'  den  may  pass  him  as  the  idle  wind.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  meet  the  difficult  question  of  the  miraculous  at  a 
point  where  we  are  strongest,  and  our  adversary  weakest. 
And  not  only  so,  but  we  meet  it  in  such  a  way,  that 
we  can  turn  the  tables  on  him  in  regard  to  probability. 
No  one  can  deny  that  miracles,  abstractly  considered,  are 
improbable.  They  would  not  be  miracles  if  they  were 
not.  And  no  one  can  deny,  that  the  presence  of 
miraculous  stories  in  a  historical  book,  seems  to  render 
it  unhistorical ;  so  that  when  we  deal  with  the  miracles 
as  a  portion  of  the  contents  of  a  book,  we  have  to  face 
the  question  of  their  improbability.  But  when  we  take 
the  other  path  :  when  we  put  Christ  in  the  foreground, 
and  show  what  He  claimed  to  be,  and  what  He  was, 
instead  of  its  being  an  improbable  thing  that  He  should 
perform  those  deeds  of  mercy  which  are  recorded  in  the 
Gospels,  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  improbable  that  He 
should  not.  And  the  absurdity  becomes  very  apparent 
of  making  it  a  ground  of  objection,  that  He  who  lived  as 
never  man  lived,  and  "  spake  as  never  man  spake," 
should  be  said  to  have  "  done  the  works  which  none 
other  man  did."  Ah,  it  is  far  better  to  lead  men  to 
Clirist  first,  and  then  to  the  miracles ;  and  not,  as  is  so 
often  done,  to  the  miracles  first,  in  the  hope  that  thus 
they  may  be  led  to  Christ.  We  do  not  deny,  indeed, 
that  there  is  a  path  that  way ;  but  we  think  the  other 
better  and  more  direct ;  and  we  seem  to  have  the 
authority  of  the  Master  Himself  for  saying  so,  for  this 
is  the  way  He  puts  it :  "  Believe  me,  that  I  am  in  the 
Father,  and  the  Father  in  me ;  or  else  believe  me  for  the 
very  works'  sake."  In  former  times  the  miracles  were 
regarded  as  the  mainstay  of  the  Christian  evidences,  and 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  47 

hence  they  very  naturally  came  in  early  and  figured 
prominently  in  the  argument ;  but  now  that  they  are 
more  apt  to  be  regarded  as  a  burden  than  a  bulwark,  it 
is  wise  to  postpone  their  consideration  until  we  have 
advanced  that  ag-ainst  which  even  the  most  thorousrh- 
going  infidel  has  nothing  to  say,  the  life  and  character  oC 
the  Lord.  And  if  we  can  only  induce  the  inquirer  to 
contemplate  the  person  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  drink  in 
His  words,  to  enter  into  sympathy  with  the  plan  and 
purpose  and  tenor  of  His  life,  to  gaze  on  the  beauty  of 
His  face,  to  fill  his  heart  with  the  admiration  which  is 
due  to  the  immortal  loveliness  of  His  character — in  a 
word,  to  get  really  and  truly  acquainted  with  Him — 
instead  of  finding  a  difficulty  in  the  wonders  connected 
with  His  birth,  or  the  deeds  of  mercy  which  He  did,  he 
will  recognise  in  these  the  necessary  complement  of  the 
other ;  and,  instead  of  thinking  it  a  thing  incredible  that 
God  should  raise  Him  from  the  dead,  he  will  be  prepared 
to  enter  into  the  true  and  deep  philosophy  of  the  apostle, 
when  he  said  that  God  "  loosed  the  pains  of  death  "  for 
Him,  "  because  it  was  not  possible-  that  He  should  be 
holden  of  it." 

It  need  scarcely  be  pointed  out  that,  for  those  who  are 
satisfied  as  to  the  divine  credentials  of  Christ,  it  is  an 
easy  step  to  pass,  through  His  teaching  on  the  subject 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  both  in  relation  to  the  prophets  who 
went  before,  and  the  apostles  to  come  after,  to  the 
acceptance  of  the  entire  Scriptures  as  given  by  inspira- 
tion of  God  ;  and,  after  being  satisfied  of  the  reality  of 
the  miracles  wrought  by  the  Lord  Himself,  to  pass  to 
the  acceptance  of  those  which  stand  connected  with  the 
names  of  the  men  whose  oflSce  it  was,  either  before  or 
after  His  life  on  earth,  to  bear  witness  to  Him. 

This  leads  us  to  remark  finally,  under  this  division  of 


48  EVANGELICAL    APOLOGETICS. 

the  subject,  that,  by  followiug  this  method,  the  inquirer 
is  kept  in  much  closer  contact  with  tlie  Divine  Person- 
ality. The  order,  in  fact,  is  just  the  order  of  the  Trinity. 
It  is  first  God,  then  Christ,  then  the  Holy  Spirit.  From 
the  contemplation  of  God  as  manifested  in  Nature  and 
Providence,  the  inquirer  passes  to  God  as  revealed  in 
Christ  ;  and,  finally,  in  the  third  and  last  stage  of  his 
inquiry,  advances  to  the  consideration  of  God  in  Christ 
made  known  by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  the  prophets 
and  apostles,  whose  testimony  and  teaching  are  preserved 
in  the  inspired  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments. Thus  the  divine  and  heavenly  is  kept  always  in 
the  foreground,  and  the  inquirer  is  helped  in  the  process 
of  his  inquiry  to  acquaint  himself  with  God  :  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

But  little  space  is  left  for  considering  the  advantages 
of  what  we  call  the  evangelical  method,  for  purposes  of 
defence.  In  doing  so,  the  writer  of  these  pages  will 
take  the  liberty  of  using  a  few  sentences  from  his  own 
little  book,  entitled  "  Rock  versus  Sand,"  in  which  he 
makes  the  attempt  to  follow  the  order  of  thought  recom- 
mended in  this  article : 

"  The  vast  accumulation  of  evidence  for  Christian 
belief  has,  to  a  large  extent,  hindered  even  Christians 
themselves  from  recognising  where  their  greatest  strength 
lies.  Inasmuch  as  nine-tenths  of  all  the  attacks  that  are 
made  on  Christianity  are  attacks  on  the  Bible,  the  atten- 
tion of  Christian  apologists  has  been  almost  exclusively 
directed  to  its  defence.  And  their  success  has  been  so 
great,  that  comparatively  few  have  felt  it  necessary  to  go 
behind  it.  The  Bible  is  such  a  wonderful  book  that, 
even  if  we  could  give  it  no  place  in  history  at  all,  it 
would  commend  itself  to  the  careful  consideration  of 
every  thoughtful  man.     Even  though  it  set  up  no  claim 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  49 

to  inspiration,  and  could  show  as  little  connection  with 
any  remarkable  name  in  history  as  the  Book  of  Mormon 
can,  it  would  be  hard  to  explain  it  without  some  super- 
human theory  of  its  origin.  If  the  defence  of  the  Bible, 
as  a  whole,  against  infidel  attacks  had  been  more  difi^icult 
or  less  successful  than  it  has  been,  there  would  have  been 
greater  disposition  to  fall  back  on  the  foundations  on 
which  the  Bible  itself  rests.  Now,  it  is  true  that,  so  far 
as  internal  evidence  is  concerned,  the  position  of  the 
defenders  of  the  Scriptures  is  stronger  than  ever.  The 
objections  against  particular  passages  are,  for  the  most 
part,  the  old  objections  that  have  done  duty  in  every 
generation  from  the  beginning  till  now,  while  deeper  and 
more  comprehensive  study  has  brought  out  now  beauties 
and  glories,  new  adaptations  and  correspondences.  But-^ 
inasmuch  as  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  now 
called  in  question  even  by  those  who  admit  the  wonderful  \ 
adaptation  of  the  Bible  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  man,  it 
is  necessary,  especially  in  these  days,  to  make  it  evident 
that  while  we  hold  as  strongly  as  ever  that  the  Bible  is 
its  own  witness,  we  decline  to  admit  that  it  is  its  only 
witness ;  we  maintain  that,  if  the  witness  of  the  Bible  to 
itself  is  challenged,  we  can  fall  back  upon  a  Witness 
nobler  still--^One  who  stands  acknowledged,  even  by  the 
enemies  of  the  Bible,  as  the  culmination  of  earth's  great- 
ness, goodness,  and  nobility. 

"  Some  even  of  the  acutest  and  most  learned  of  the 
opponents  of  Christianity  have  not  really  estimated  the 
true  strength  of  our  position.  Take  the  following  passage 
from  the  introductory  chapter  of  '  Supernatural  Religion ' 
as  an  illustration :  '  Orthodox  Christians  at  the  present 
day  may  be  divided  into  two  broad  classes,  one  of  which 
professes  to  base  the  Church  upon  the  Bible,  and  the 
other  the  Bible  upon  the  Church.     The  one  party  assert 

D 


50  EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS. 

that  the  Bible  is  fully  and  absolutely  inspired ;  that  it 
contains  God's  revelation  to  man,  and  that  it  is  the  only 
and  sufficient  ground  for  all  religious  belief.'  Now,  this 
is  an  entire  misunderstanding  and  misrepresentation  of 
our  position.  It  is  a  confounding  of  the  question  as  to 
the  limits  of  inspiration  with  the  question  as  to  the 
grounds  of  inspiration.  We  are  familiar  with  the  stand- 
ing controversy  as  to  whether  the  Church  rests  on  the 
Bible  or  the  Bible  on  the  Church.  The  latter  is  the 
Eoman  Catholic  view,  while  the  Protestant  theologians 
have  taken  the  position  that  the  Church  derives  her 
authority  from  the  Bible,  not  the  Bible  from  the  Church. 
Hence  the  famous  watchword  of  Cbillingworth,  'The 
Bible,  and  the  Bible  alone,  the  religion  of  Protestants.' 
\ J  Now,  we  are  quite  willing  to  stand  by  the  motto,  '  The 
Bible  and  the  Bible  alone,'  when  the  question  is  as  to 
the  limits  of  that  which  is  authoritative,  when  the  con- 
ytroversy  is  with  those  who  wish  to  impose  decrees  of 
councils  and  ecclesiastical  dogmas  and  traditions  as  of 
equal  authority  with  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  but  it  is  quite 
a  different  thing,  when  the  question  is  as  to  the  founda- 
tion of  our  faith,  and  the  controversy  is  with  those  who 
would  take  it  away  from  us  altogether.  We  do  say  that 
the  Church  rests  upon  the  Bible,  but  we  utterly  deny 
that  '  the  Bible  is  the  only  ground  for  all  religious  belief.' 
We  do  say  that  'we  (the  Church)  are  built  upon  the 
foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets '  (the  Bible) ;  but 
we  do  not  stop  there.  With  the  apostle  we  go  on  and 
say,  '  Jesus  Christ  Himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone.' 
And  it  is  satisfactory  to  know  that,  while  '  the  foundation 
of  the  apostles  and  prophets '  is  so  strong  that  it  has 
resisted  all  attempts  to  undermine  it  for  more  than 
seventeen  centuries,  the  corner-stone  is  so  immovable 
that  it  not  only  stands  secure  in  the  estimation  of  all  the 


EVANGELICAL   APOLOGETICS.  5  I 

friends  of  Christianity,  but  '  even  our  enemies  themselves 
being  judges,'  as  could  be  fully  shown  by  quotations 
from  many  of  the  ablest  of  our  opponents." 

The  general  of  an  army,  being  vulnerable  like  other 
men,  may  not  be  exposed  in  the  front  of  the  battle.  But 
it  is  different  with  "  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation."  He 
is  general,  army,  fortress,  and  all.  David  knew  how  to 
put  it :  "  The  Lord  is  my  Rock,  and  my  Fortress,  and 
my  Deliverer  ;  my  God,  my  Strength,  in  whom  I  will 
trust,  my  Buckler,  and  the  Horn  of  my  salvation,  and 
my  High  Tower ;  "  and  Solomon  too  :  "  The  Name  of  the 
Lord  is  a  strong  tower ;  the  righteous  runneth  into  it 
and  is  safe."  Just  as  the  Saviour  had  to  remind  the 
Pharisees  that  "  In  this  place  is  One  greater  than  the 
temple ;  "  and  again,  "  Behold  a  greater  than  Jonas,  a 
greater  than  Solomon  is  here " — so  we  have  need  to 
remember  that,  great  as  were  those  "  holy  men  of  old  " 
who  "  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  a 
greater  than  all  is  here ;  and  we  greatly  weaken  our 
position  if,  instead  of  resting  their  claims  ultimately  on 
His,  we  make  His  rest  ultimately  on  theirs.  We  have 
need,  especially  in  these  trying  times,  to  remember,  that 
the  chief  corner-stone  is  our  mainstay,  that  "  other 
foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is 
Jesus  Christ."  On  the  great  underlying  bed-rock  of  the 
Divine  Existence  rests  the  "  Rock  of  Ages  "  (Is.  xxvi.  4), 
which  God  Himself  has  laid  in  Zion  for  a  foundation 
(Is,  xxviii.  1 6,  and  i  Pet.  ii.  4-6) ;  and  on  that  founda- 
tion the  apostles  and  prophets,  and  all  the  Church,  is 
built  "  for  a  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit,"  and  it 
is  to  the  Church  as  resting  on  that  rock  foundation  of 
"  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God,"  that  the  promise  is 
given,  "  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

We  of  the  evanofelical  faith  have  learned  to  make  our 


52  EVANGELICAL    APOLOGETICS. 

preacLing  the  preacliing  of  Christ ;  we  are  learning  to 
make  our  theology  more  and  more  centre  in  Christ,  and 
we  believe  that  as  the  combat  thickens,  our  apologetics 
will  follow  in  the  same  path,  and  in  every  department  of 
Christian  thought,  Christ  be  acknowledged  as  Himself 
the  Truth. 


III. 

THE  SCEPTIC'S  QUESTION  ANSWERED  BY 
HIMSELF. 

"Pilate  saith  unto  Him,  W!:at  is  truth  ?  " — John  xviii.  38. 
"Pilate  saith  uuto  them,  Behold  the  Man." — John  xix.  5. 

T^HE  sceptic's  question,  answered  by  liiraself,  uninten- 
fcentionally,  unconsciously,  but  most  admirably.  No 
answer  could  be  better.  We  thank  thee,  Pilate,  for  the 
word.  It  was  meant  for  scorn  ;  it  has  turned  to  praise. 
As  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings,  so,  out  of 
the  mouth  of  a  witness  as  unconscious  as  they,  God  has 
ordained  strength  because  of  the  enemy.  It  is  said  that 
in  nature  the  stinging  nettle  is  closely  attended  by  the 
healing  blade,  so  here  close  to  the  sceptic's  question  lies 
its  most  appropriate  answer.  A  little  further  on  there  is 
another  unconscious  answer.  Pilate  had  asked  in  his 
undecided  way,  "  What  shall  I  do  with  this  Jesus  which 
is  called  Christ  ?  "  and  out  of  his  mouth  comes  the  right 
answer  :  "  Behold  your  King  ! "  But  one  is  enough  at  a 
time ;  we  shall  confine  ourselves  to  the  sceptic's  ques- 
tion with  its  answer,  and  add  Pontius  Pilate  to  the  staff 
of  Cheshunt  College*  for  the  hour.  It  may  bo  worth 
while,  for  once,  to  get  a  lecture  from  the  Procurator's 
chair. 

Though  the  speaker  is  ancient,  the  subject  is  not,  for 

*  In  its  original  form  this  was  an  address  delivered  at  Cheshunt  Anni- 
versary, 1SS7. 


54  THE   SCEPTIC'S   QUESTION 

the  sceptical  question  wliicli  he  answered  so  well  is  a 
question  of  the  day.  The  truth  doubted  is  the  same 
which  unbelief  doubts  now.  For  Pilate  was  no  sceptic 
as  to  matter,  or  motion,  or  force;  he  believed  in  every- 
thing he  saw  ;  he  did  not  doubt  his  senses  or  his  reason 
or  the  reality  of  plain  palpable  facts  of  observation.  That 
was  not  the  kind  of  truth  he  suspected  ;  it  was  the 
truth  which  Christ  had  been  speaking,  to  which  He  had 
come  to  bear  witness,  the  truth  in  regard  to  the  per- 
manent realities  of  life — those  "  high  instincts,"  as  the 
poet  calls  them,  "  which,  be  they  what  they  may,  are  yet 
the  fountain  light  of  all  our  day,"  "  a  master  light  of  all 
our  seeing," — the  truth  about  God,  and  eternity,  and  duty, 
and  destiny,  the  truth  which  underlies  all  changes  and 
over-arches  all  experience.  And  his  position  was  not  one  of 
denial,  only  of  Agnosticism.  He  does  not  say  "  There  is  no 
truth,"  only  raises  the  question  whether  it  can  be  known, 
and  thinks  that  by  raising  it  he  has  justified  himself  in 
dismissing  the  subject  from  his  mind  ;  for  immediately  he 
goes  out  from  the  presence  of  Him  who  has  been  urging 
the  claims  of  truth  upon  him.  He  asks  the  question 
and  does  not  wait  for  the  answer,  a  method  of  investi- 
gation which  is  by  no  means  obsolete  in  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Well,  now,  let  us  look  at  the  words  which  follow  the 
question  so  closely  that  we  can  scarcely  avoid  connecting 
them  with  it,  and  see  if  they  be  not  the  very  answer 
required.  "  What  is  truth  ?  "  he  has  just  asked.  "Be- 
hold the  Man  !  "  he  now  exclaims.  Yes  ;  and  as  we  think 
of  it,  we  remember  what  Christ  Himself  has  said  to  His 
disciples  the  very  day  before :  "  I  am  the  truth."  We 
remember,  too,  how  all  through  the  Old  Testament  there 
are  voices  which  seem  to  herald  the  coming  of  a  man 
who  shall  satisfy  the  yearnings  of  humanity,  and  how  all 


ANSWERED    BY    HIMSELF.  55 

tlirougli  the  New  Testament  we  are  summoned  and  en- 
treated to  look  unto  this  Man  as  one  who  has  done  it. 
Yes,  Pilate,  you  are  right,  you  are  quite  in  the  line  of 
the  true  succession,  of  the  prophets  that  went  before,  and 
the  apostles  that  are  to  come  after  you,  and  in  harmony 
with  Him  who  stands  before  you,  when,  after  asking  the 
question,  "  What  is  truth  ?  "  you  point  to  the  incarnate 
Word,  and  say  :   "  Behold  the  Man  !  " 

First  and  foremost,  there  is  the  truth  about  humanity. 
What  is  man  ?  What  are  we  to  think  of  human  life ; 
its  meaning  and  value,  its  hopes  and  prospects,  its  duties 
and  responsibilities,  its  nature  and  destiny  ?  Come  now, 
ye  biologists,  here  is  a  life  to  study  !  Come,  ye  anthro- 
pologists, "  Behold  the  Man."  By  all  means  study  all 
kinds  of  men,  savages  and  wild  men  of  the  woods,  the 
most  degraded  specimens  you  can  find ;  but  do  not  con- 
sider your  induction  complete  till  you  have  given  at  least 
as  much  attention  to  the  noblest  and  the  best,  and,  above 
all,  to  the  man  whose  life,  by  consent  of  all  intelligent 
persons,  is  most  of  all  worth  looking  into.  You  know  the 
common  reference  to  the  play  of  Hamlet  with  Hamlet  left 
out.  Surely  you  do  not  intend  to  reach  a  conclusion  as 
to  man's  place  in  nature  with  the  man  left  out,  His  name 
never  mentioned.  His  great  life  never  once  referred  to  ? 

We  have  not  a  word  to  say  against  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  lower  forms  of  life,  the  exploration  of  all 
that  contributes  to  our  knowledge  of  the  meanest  part 
or  function  of  our  complex  nature ;  and  if  it  is  ascer- 
tained as  a  fact,  that  our  bodies  are  closely  connected 
with  a  succession  of  forms  running  down  to  the  lowest 
organism,  so  let  it  be.  Let  us  have  all  the  facts, 
however  mean  they  may  be,  or  seem  to  be  ;  but  then 
let  us  have  them  all,  however  great  they  be ;  all  the 
facts  that  point  to  what  is  grand  and  elevating,  as  well 


56  THE  sceptic's  question 

as  tliose  that  point  to  what  is  mean  and  degrading.  Wliy 
should  attention  be  fixed  so  exclusively  on  the  facts  which 
belong  to  the  lower  phases  of  life  ?  Why  should  the 
science  of  life,  claiming,  as  it  does,  to  include  mind  and 
heart  and  soul  in  it,  be  defined,  as  one  of  its  greatest  ex- 
ponents defines  it,  as  "  the  science  of  living  matter,"  a 
conception  which,  however  appropriate  to  the  lower  ranges 
of  life,  is  utterly  inadequate  in  the  higher  ?  Starting- 
out  with  that  conception,  it  is  of  course  necessary  to 
resolve  all  thought  and  feeling  into  modifications  of  "  living 
matter,"  to  make  conscience  and  character,  faith  and  hope, 
and  love  and  righteousness,  nothing  better  than  so  many 
varying  movements  of  living  matter  ;  and,  of  course,  when 
the  living  matter  ceases  to  be  living  it  is  dead  matter, 
and  in  that  dead  matter  is  to  be  found  all  that  remains 
of  faith,  and  hope,  and  love,  and  life,  in  the  shape  of 
ashes  and  water  and  gas.  Now,  so  long  as  one  keeps 
working  mainly  amongst  molluscs  or  even  among  trog- 
lodytes, it  is  not  difficult  to  think  that  all  is  only  living 
matter.  The  mental  phenomena  are  so  very  scarce  and 
low  in  type  that  they  are  easily  accounted  for  without 
spoiling  the  definition.  But  when  we  come  to  the  higher 
ranges  of  life  we  reach  a  region  where,  if  we  deal  honestly 
with  the  facts,  we  cannot  dispose  of  them  in  so  easy  a  way. 
It  is  impossible  to  do  it  honestly  in  dealing  only  with 
ordinary  men ;  the  difficulty  is  greatly  increased  when 
we  are  confronted  with  the  great  minds  and  noble  souls, 
which  have  adorned  the  history  of  mankind ;  but  when 
we  look  at  the  greatest  of  all,  it  becomes  nothing  less 
than  an  insult  to  reason  to  suggest  it. 

So  long  as  we  are  looking  at  creatures  in  which  the 
animal  is  clearly  predominant,  it  is  easy  to  think  of  them 
as  mere  animals,  made  up  of  living  matter  and  nothing  else; 
but  as  soon  as  the  spiritual  becomes  manifestly  predomi- 


ANSWERED    BY    HIMSELF.  57 

nant,  as  in  tlie  better  sort  of  men,  it  is  only  by  tlie  most 
unworthy  sophistry  that  the  higher  can  be  merged  in  the 
lower ;  and  when  you  turn  your  attention  to  One  in  whom 
the  spiritucd  so  shines  out  as  it  does  in  this  Man,  in  whom 
the  spirit  so  manifestly  lords  it  over  the  flesh — trans- 
figures the  common  clay  of  its  environment — gives  it  a 
glory  which  is  manifestly  not  its  own — it  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  we  are  looking  at  a  mere  phase  of  animal  life, 
flickering  up  for  a  moment,  only  to  fall  back  again  and  be 
"  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void."  It  becomes  manifest  that 
in  Him  there  is  life  quite  out  of  the  range  of  protoplasm 
and  all  possible  variations  of  it,  infinitely  higher  than  any 
conceivable  motion  of  living  matter.  See  how  the  life 
shines  out  in  contrast  with  the  poverty  and  meanness  of 
its  setting,  a  demonstration  that  spirit  and  not  flesh  is  the 
ultimate  truth  of  humanity.  "  Behold  the  Man  !  "  See 
Him  in  His  humble  home  at  Nazareth,  to  outward  ap- 
pearance only  a  carpenter.  See  Him  trudging  the  dusty 
roads  and  climbing  the  steep  hill-sides  of  Palestine,  to 
outward  appearance  only  a  poor  pedestrian.  See  Him 
despised  and  rejected  of  all  the  great  of  the  land,  to  out- 
ward appearance  only  a  deluded  fanatic.  See  Him  before 
Pilate,  His  form  scarred  with  scourging.  His  face  pale 
with  anguish,  the  thorn  crown  upon  His  brow,  mocking 
voices  and  scowling  faces  all  around,  to  outward  appear- 
ance a  common  criminal.  Then  think  of  that  great  soul  of 
His,  see  it  in  its  awful  and  majestic  loneliness ;  compare 
the  magnificence  of  the  spirit  with  the  shame  of  the 
flesh,  the  glory  of  the  life  with  the  abjectness  of  the 
living  matter ;  and  then  say,  if  you  can — if  you  dare — 
that  the  real  truth  of  that  manhood  is  to  be  found  in  the 
paltry  matter  of  its  flesh,  and  not  in  the  magnificent,  glori- 
ous Divine  Spirit  which  shines  out  of  that  poor  tenement 
of  clay.      No,  no  !   my  biologist  friend,  I  do  not  think  so 


58  THE   sceptic's   QUESTION 

very  meanly  of  you  as  to  suppose  it  possible  that  you  can 
behold  this  Man,  and  not  realise  that  you  are  hasty  in 
your  conclusion  that  matter  is  the  substance,  and  spirit 
the  shadow,  that  life  is  only  passing  breath,  and  death 
the  Lord  of  all.  Behold  the  Man,  and  see  that  spirit 
lords  it  over  matter,  and  life  triumphs  over  death.  We 
are  quite  willing  to  reserve  our  judgment  as  to  molluscs 
and  apes,  and  we  may  not  think  it  necessary  to  enter  into 
controversy  in  regard  to  those  poor  wretches  in  human 
shape,  that  seem  to  be  scarcely  human  at  all,  which  so 
many  think  it  so  important  to  investigate.  Perhaps  the 
animal  is  so  preponderant  in  them  that  it  may  swallow 
up  anything  that  seems  to  rise  above  it,  and  carbonic 
acid  gas  be  the  crown  and  consummation  of  their  life. 
But  when  we  pass  from  those  types  which  have  the  very 
least  significance  to  those  which  are  the  most  significant, 
and  especially  when  we  look  at  the  One  above  all  others, 
from  whom  there  is  most  to  be  learned,  we  see — it  is  not 
a  matter  of  faith  ;  we  see  it — we  see  that  the  animal  is 
merged  in  the  spiritual,  that  mortality  is  swallowed  up  of 
life.  And,  accordingly,  when  we  read  a  little  further  on 
of  His  resurrection  from  the  dead,  we  cannot  be  surpiised. 
Why  should  we  be  surprised  ?  It  is  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  Is  He  not,  of  all  men  that  ever  lived  upon  the 
earth,  the  very  fittest  to  survive,  and  can  we  suppose 
that  nothing  in  that  noble  soul  survived  after  He  bowed 
His  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost  ?  It  is  not  possible. 
The  Apostle  Peter  was  certainly  right  when  he  said  it 
was  not  possible  that  He  should  be  holden  of  death. 

So  far  we  have  been  thinking  of  the  "  Man  "  as  the 
most  significant  type  of  manhood  the  world  has  ever  had 
in  it,  and,  therefore,  best  of  all  worth  study  if  we  would 
find  out  the  truth  of  human  nature  and  human  life, 
with  its  meaning  and  purpose,  its  responsibilities    and 


ANSWERED   BY  HIMSELF.  59 

prospects.  But  as  we  continue  beholding  the  "  Man  "  we 
find  very  very  much  more  in  Him.  He  grows  upon  us 
wonderfully,  even  as  He  grew  upon  His  first  disciples,  to 
whose  early  questioning  about  Him  the  wise  and  simple 
answer  was  only  "  Come  and  see  !  "  and  whose  beholding 
ended  in  their  seeing  in  Him  "  the  glory  of  the  Only 
Begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth."  We  find 
that  that  noble  life  is  not  only  a  type  of  humanity  but  a 
mirror  of  Divinity,  reflecting  all  of  the  glory  of  God  which 
it  is  possible  and  needful  for  us  to  see.  Those  who  are  "  of 
the  earth,  earthy,"  who  have  allowed  the  faculty  of  spiritual 
discernment  to  die  out  or  become  obscure  for  want  of 
use,  will,  of  course,  fail  to  see  it ;  but  they  who  are  "  of 
the  truth,"  they  who  have  that  spiritual  sympathy  which 
is  necessary  to  the  recognition  of  beauty  or  glory  any- 
where, will  certainly  see  in  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  the 
face  of  God.  Elsewhere  in  Nature  we  can,  as  it  were, 
touch  the  hem  of  His  garment,  but  we  cannot  know  Him 
till  we  look  upon  His  face.  The  face  is  nature's  mode  of 
revelation  and  recognition,  and  chief  of  all  "  the  human 
face  divine."  Your  face  is  not  yourself,  it  is  only  the 
outward  expression  or  incarnation  of  your  spirit;  but  if 
I  refuse  to  look  into  your  face,  and  will  not  listen  to 
your  voice,  I  must  remain  unacquainted  with  you.  In 
the  same  way,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  is  the  face  of  God 
to  us.  By  looking  at  Him  we  become  acquainted  with 
our  Father  in  heaven ;  not  otherwise  :  "no  man  cometh 
unto  the  Father  but  by  Me."  Hence  present  day  Agnos- 
ticism. The  Agnostic  is  perfectly  right  in  saying  that 
God  cannot  be  known  by  the  pure  intellect,  but  neither 
can  we  know  one  another  in  any  such  way.  In  our  pre- 
sent condition  the  only  way  of  certainly  knowing  spirits 
is  by  looking  into  faces  and  listening  to  voices  :  why, 
then,  should  we  wonder  that  in  order  to  know  God  we 


6o  THE    sceptic's    QUESTION 

sliould  have  a  face  to  look  at  and  a  voice  to  listen  to  ?  * 
"  Behold  the  Man  "  is  the  Gospel  for  the  Agnostic.  Ah  ! 
ray  good  and  learned  friend,  you  are  right  in  everything 
except  in  turning  your  back  on  Christ.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  you  cannot  find  your  Father  God  in  earth  or 
sea,  with  telescope  or  microscope,  by  alembic  or  retort ; 
it  is  perfectly  true  that  you  cannot  reach  Him  by  soaring 
up  on  wings  of  speculation ;  but  you  can  find  Him  by 
humbly  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  looking  up  into 
His  face,  and  listening  to  His  voice,  giving  special  heed 
to  those  most  weighty  words  of  His,  "  I  am  the  way,  and 
the  truth,  and  the  life  ;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father 
but  by  Me." 

These  words  remind  us  that  the  truth  in  Him  is 
living,  saving  truth.  It  has  a  wondrous  power  on  the 
beholder.  As  we  look  and  listen  we  are  humbled  in  the 
dust,  brought  to  our  knees,  constrained  to  cry  out  for 
pardon  and  for  purity.  And  as  we  watch  Him,  with  the 
crown  of  thorns  on  His  head  and  the  cross  upon  His 
shoulder,  and  follow  Him  through  the  shame  and  agony  of 
that  awful  day — wounded  for  our  transgressions,  bruised 
for  our  iniquities,  crucified  and  slain  for  us — our  hearts 
are  won.  Dead  henceforth  to  sin,  the  hatefulness  of  Avhich 
is  seen  in  the  awful  sacrifice  as  nowhere  else,  we  yield 
ourselves  unto  God  and  have  peace,  and  hope,  and  life. 

And  as  still  we  follow  Him  through  the  gates  of  death 

up  to  the  throne  on  which  He  now  is  seated,  we  find  as 

deep  a  meaning  in  the  second  word  of  Pilate  as  in  the 

first — "  Behold  your  King."      Now  we  know  Him  as  our 

Life,  for  His  Spii'it  takes  the  throne  of  our  heart,  and 

as  we  still  continue  beholding  in  the  Man  Christ  Jesus, 

*  "  0  Saul,  it  shall  be 
A  face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee  ;  a  hand  like  this  hand 
Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  new  life  to  thee !    See  the  Christ  stand ! " 

— Broiming. 


ANSWERED    BY   HIMSELF..  6 1 

as  in  a  glass,  tlie  glory  of  the  Lord,  we  are  cliangecl  into 
the  same  image,  from  glory  to  glory  by  the  Lord,  the 
Spirit ;  and  thus  there  is  developed  in  us  true  life,  not 
the  mere  agitation  or  fluctuation  of  living  matter  for  a  few 
years ;  but  "  life  indeed,"  life  which  the  truth  has  made 
free ;  life  which  rises  above  the  animal,  disengages  itself 
from  the  transient  and  mortal,  takes  firm  hold  of  the 
things  that  cannot  be  shaken,  and  so  gives  promise  of  at 
last  emerging  from  its  tenement  of  clay,  victorious  over 
death  through  the  grace  and  power  of  Him  from  whom 
it  came,  and  who  is  the  Lord  of  life  and  glory.  Such  is 
the  expected  crown  and  consummation  of  the  Christian's 
evolution,  which  begins  by  beholding  the  Man,  and  has 
the  promise  of  ending  by  our  being  like  Him,  when  we 
shall  see  Him  as  He  is. 

This,  however,  takes  us  somewhat  beyond  the  region  of 
our  subject,  into  the  region  of  hope  rather  than  of  visible 
truth.  Let  us  therefore  come  back  to  the  main  concep- 
tion of  the  truth  as  embodied  in  the  Man  Christ  Jesus, 
and  consider  as  briefly  as  possible  how  impregnable  is 
the  position  in  which  Pontius  Pilate  places  us.  A  very 
ignorant  young  man  told  me  the  other  day  that  he 
understood  that  science  had  proved  that  there  was  no 
Christ.  I  could  not  understand  what  vague  notions  he 
had  in  his  head,  but  evidently  it  was  some  confused  idea 
of  something  he  had  heard  about  the  Bible  and  science 
not  being  on  the  best  of  terms.  Now,  it  is  important 
to  remember  that  we  never  hear  of  any  conflict,  real  or 
supposed,  between  Christ  and  science ;  it  is  always  "  the 
Bible  and  science."  Well,  what  is  the  Bible  ?  It  is  the 
testimony  of  a  long  series  of  witnesses  to  Christ  and  His 
truth.  As  a  succession  of  witnesses  to  the  greatness  of 
the  spiritual  in  man,  and  the  reality  of  the  love  and 
grace  of  God,  and  in  particular  to  the  revelation  of  God 


62  THE  sceptic's    QUESTION 

in  Christ,  expected  throughout  the  Old  Testament  and 
attested  in  the  New,  it  is  most  impressive  and  most  con- 
clusive. But  then,  some  people  say,  judging  from  some 
things  that  fall  from  them,  these  witnesses  to  Christ  are 
not  up  to  the  standard  of  nineteenth  century  science. 
Are  they  not  ?  What  a  pity !  But  what  has  that  to 
do  with  the  subject  ?  We  might  say,  indeed,  that  Christ 
is  independent  of  all  these  witnesses,  for  that  noble  life 
of  His,  as  we  have  seen,  can  speak  for  itself.  But  let 
that  pass,  and  we  have  still  to  ask  what  worse  witnesses 
are  they  to  Christ,  because  they  were  behind,  not  their 
own  age — nobody  says  that — but  behind  our  age  in 
geology  and  astronomy  and  biology  ?  We  really  must 
remember  that  they  had  not  access  to  the  ninth  edition 
of  the  "  Encyclopeedia  Britannica,"  and  therefore  we  must 
not  think  it  so  very  terrible  that  they  should  be  ignorant 
of  some  of  its  contents.  Suppose  we  go  somewhere  else 
for  our  science,  and  make  use  of  "  all  Scripture,  for  the 
purposes  for  which  we  are  told  it  is  given — for  doc- 
trine, for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  right- 
eousness," and  especially  for  the  chief  purpose,  signalised 
by  the  Master  Himself,  "  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  in 
them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life,  and  they  are  they 
which  testify  of  Me."  The  Scriptures  were  not  given  to 
lighten  up  the  universe.  Is  it  not  enough  that  they 
lighten  the  path  of  life,  and  that  from  all  parts  there 
converge  rays  of  light  which  are  focussed  on  the  face  of 
Him  who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life  ?  If 
certain  parts  of  the  Bible  and  science  are  at  variance, 
let  it  be  settled  between  them,  but  whichever  way  it  is 
settled,  it  will  make  no  difference  whatever,  to  an  intel- 
ligent mind,  in  the  force  with  which  the  truth  impresses 
itself  upon  the  hearts  of  those  who  take  Pilate's  advice 
and  behold  the  Man. 


AXSWEKED    BY    HIMSELF.  63 

But  does  not  evolution,  somehow  or  other,  turn  our 
flank  ?  There  is  a  vague  idea  in  some  minds,  that  the 
new  genesis  of  all  things,  which  has  found  so  much 
favour  with  a  large  proportion  of  thinking  men  of  our 
day,  is  unsettling  the  foundations  of  the  Gospel.  These 
fears  would  be  dispelled  if  it  were  only  remembered  that, 
interesting  and  important  as  is  the  question  "  Whence  ?  " 
much  more  important  and  decisive  is  the  question 
"  What  ?  "  Theories  of  origin  are  interesting,  but  facts 
of  life  are  much  safer  guides  to  truth.  Now  the  truth 
which  we  believe  is  grounded  on  no  doubtful  or  difficult 
question  as  to  how  things  came  to  be  what  they  are,  but 
on  plain  palpable  facts — the  gi'eat  fact  of  sin,  attested  by 
the  universal  conscience  ;  the  great  fact  of  the  life  of 
Christ ;  the  great  facts  of  the  history  which  led  up  to 
Christ,  and  of  that  which  has  followed  His  death  and 
resurrection ;  the  great  facts  of  experience,  the  experi- 
ence of  a  vast  multitude  whom  no  man  can  number,  out 
of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people  and  nation,  who 
have  found  in  Christ  an  ever-living,  ever-present  Friend 
and  Saviour.  We  have  not  a  word  of  disparagement  for 
those  interesting  discussions  as  to  the  origin  of  all 
things ;  but  it  is  surely  manifest  that  they  cannot  set 
aside  facts,  nor  can  they  compare  with  them  in  practical 
importance.  There  is  a  disposition  in  our  day  to  attach 
far  too  much  relative  importance  to  the  question  of 
origin;  and  in  nothing  is  this  more  marked  than  in  the 
attempt  to  determine  man's  place  in  nature  by  inquiries 
as  to  the  origin  of  species.  Just  think  how  apt  we  are 
to  be  misled  in  such  estimates.  What  is  a  statue,  for 
example  ?  Could  you  get  a  satisfactory  answer  by  visit- 
ing some  marble  quarry  where  labouring  men  are  hewing 
out  the  raw  material?  Would  not  one  visit  to  the  Vatican, 
or  one  sight  of  the  Apollo  Belvedere,  give  you  a  better 


64  THE    sceptic's    QUESTION 

idea  of  what  a  statue  is  than  a  life-time  spent  in  the 
quarries  of  Carrara  ?  What  would  you  think  of  the  art 
critic  who  should  insist  on  estimating-  the  worth  of  some 
great  painting  in  the  Academy  by  the  result  of  his 
inquiries  into  its  material  origin — the  quality  and  cost 
of  canvas,  paint,  and  frame  ?  In  the  same  way,  if  you 
judge  a  man  by  his  visible  origin,  you  get  a  poor, 
degraded,  and  utterly  wrong  idea  of  him ;  whereas,  if 
you  judge  him  by  the  outcome  of  the  great  artist's  work, 
you  are  much  more  likely  to  reach  the  truth.  Let  our 
friends  dig  away  in  the  quarries  ;  and  we  shall  take 
interest  in  their  work,  and  read  their  books,  and  I'ejoice 
in  any  true  result  they  reach  ;  but  no  result  which  they 
can  reach  by  any  such  digging  need  at  all  diminish  the 
appreciation  and  delight  with  which  we  contemplate  the 
Man  Christ  Jesus,  and  open  our  hearts  to  the  living  power 
of  the  grace  and  truth  which  a  million  facts  and  experi- 
ences prove  to  be  in  Him. 

Our  position  is  quite  secure,  then,  as  far  as  science  is 
concerned ;  but  what  of  criticism  ?  Here,  too,  we  may 
possess  our  souls  in  patience,  for  here,  again,  it  is  not 
Christ  and  criticism  which  ever  are  at  strife ;  it  is  the  Bible 
and  criticism,  or,  rather,  current  notions  about  the  Bible 
and  current  notions  about  criticism  ;  and  the  Bible,  as 
we  have  seen,  being  a  long  line  of  witnesses,  questions  of 
date  and  authorship — interesting  though  they  be  as  his- 
torical questions  and  Biblical  questions — leave  the  grand 
witness  to  spiritual  truth  and  to  the  coming  Christ  un- 
dimmed  and  undiminished  in  its  power,  whatever  be  the 
result.  But,  then,  do  not  these  critical  questions  affect  the 
gospels  themselves  ?  No  doubt,  but  they  do  not  really 
affect  the  Gospel.  How  did  the  first  preachers  get  on  when 
there  were  no  written  gospels  at  all  ?  We  really  do  not 
need  to  discuss  the  gospels  before  finding  the  truth  in 


ANSWERED    BY    BIMSELF.  6$ 

tliem,  any  more  than  we  need  to  analyse  a  loaf  of  bread 
before  getting  the  good  of  it.  It  is  simply  a  question  of 
looking  and  listening,  of  seeing  and  hearing.  As  the  Lord 
Himself  said  to  Pilate  :  "  Every  one  that  is  of  the  truth 
heareth  my  voice."  The  life  shines  out  from  the  Gospel 
page,  and  any  one  who  is  of  the  truth  can  see,  by  simply 
looking  at  it,  that  it  is  genuine,  that  it  cannot  be  an 
invention.  You  might  as  well  say  the  sun  was  an  inven- 
tion, a  clever  invention  of  four  electricians,  or,  rather, 
to  make  the  comparison  just,  of  four  men  who  knew 
nothing  about  electricity.  I  could  as  soon  believe  that,  as 
suppose  that  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John  invented 
that  life  and  set  it  blazing  in  the  spiritual  firmament 
these  eighteen  hundred  years.  There  is  the  life,  and  we 
have  only  to  look  at  it.  Here  is  the  Man,  set  befoi'e  us 
as  no  other  man  has  ever  been,  clearly,  vividly,  without 
adornment  of  language,  with  perfect  candour  and  sin- 
cerity, with  all  the  transparency  of  truth,  with  the  glory 
of  His  spirit  luminous  before  us.  We  have  only  to  look 
that  we  may  see.  The  message  is  not,  Behold  the  Book, 
or,  Behold  the  Books,  but  "  Behold  the  Man." 

And  here  all  Christians  are  at  one.  There  is  no 
division  among  us  in  regard  to  the  truth.  The  sneering 
question,  "  What  is  truth  ?  "  has  often  been  asked  with 
the  finger  of  scorn  pointed  to  the  different  churches,  as  if 
each  claimed  to  have  the  truth  apart  from  all  the  rest.  But 
such  an  imputation  is  utterly  unjust ;  at  all  events,  it  is 
unjust  now.  The  different  churches  may  claim  to  bear 
witness  to  some  small  fraction  of  truth  which  others  do 
not  maintain,  but  in  regard  to  the  Truth — that  which  is 
central,  vital,  fundamental — all  evangelical  churches  are 
at  one.  The  time  is  happily  past  and  gone  when  the 
unity  of  the  faith  was  supposed  to  embrace  a  great 
system  of  the  universe,  in  which  the  mind  was  expected 

E 


66  THE  sceptic's  question 

to  go  back  to  tlie  decrees  of  God  in  a  past  eternity,  and 
to  sweep  on  majestically  to  the  consummation  of  all 
tilings  in  an  eternity  to  come,  picking  up  easily  on  the 
road  suck  fragments  of  truth  as  lay  in  its  path  across  the 
circle  of  the  sciences,  and  if  any  luckless  fact  of  science 
stood  in  the  way,  so  much  the  worse  for  it !  Unanimity 
of  opinion  through  such  a  mighty  range  is  no  longer 
thought  of.  We  have  come,  or  are  fast  coming,  back  to 
the  simplicity  which  is  in  Christ,  to  recognise  that  the 
unity  of  the  faith  towards  which  the  growing  Church  is 
hastening,  may  be  otherwise  described  as  that  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  according  to  the  Great 
Apostle  who  looked  forward  to  the  day  when  all  should 
attain  to  that  unity,  and  so  reach  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.  There  are  few  things 
more  hopeful  than  the  growing  disposition  among 
Christians  to  make  less  of  prepositional  truth,  and  more 
of  Him  who  said,  "/  am  the  truth  ;  "  less  of  faith  as  a 
thing  in  itself,  and  more  of  it  as  a  link  which  binds  us  all 
to  Him  ;  less  of  the  dogmatic,  "  I  know  what  I  have  be- 
lieved," and  more  of  the  apostolic,  "  I  know  Whom  I  have 
believed ; "  to  take  as  our  greatest  message  to  the  world, 
not  "  Behold  the  Church  !  "  or  "  Behold  the  Creed  !  "  but 
'*  Behold  the  Man  ! " 

In  this  regard  Cheshunt  College  has  all  alonof  occu- 

o  DO 

pied  a  position  far  in  the  van.  Where  is  there  any 
of  our  Christian  institutions  that  has  borne  clearer  or 
nobler  testimony  to  this  unity,  this  genuine  unity,  of  all 
true  Christians  in  the  Lord  ?  Cheshunt  has  had  a 
noble  record  written  in  the  life-work  of  the  men  who 
have  gone  forth  from  its  halls,  and  on  this  ground 
stands  high  among  its  sister  institutions  in  its  claims  on 
public  support.  But  it  has  also  this  peculiar  claim  upon 
us  all — that  it  has  been,  and  is,  a  standing  witness  to 


ANSWERED    BY    HIMSELF.  6/ 

the  reality  of  tlie  Churcli's  oneness  in  Christ  Jesus,  find, 
therefore,  of  its  oneness  in  the  truth,  furnishing  as  it 
lias  done,  and  still  continues  to  do,  faithful  ministers  for 
all  the  evangelical  churches  of  the  land  and  for  positions 
of  influence  in  the  great  evangelical  societies,  and  for 
service  in  the  foreign  field,  far  beyond  the  range  of 
the  devoted  circle  of  earnest  Christians,  who  first  pro- 
jected this  noble  institution  on  a  basis  so  grandly  catholic 
and  apostolic.  When  we  begin  with  Christ  and  make 
Him  the  centre  of  our  life  and  thought,  and  from  that 
centre  work  outwards  towards  the  far  horizon  of  truth 
in  its  widest  sense,  though  we  inevitably  come  to  places 
where  we  must  part  company  (for  how  is  it  possible  for 
any  two  independent  men  to  agree  in  all  the  boundless 
region  of  thought  which  opens  out  on  every  side  ?),  yet 
there  is  so  much,  so  very  much,  on  which,  as  Christians, 
we  are  entirely  at  one,  that  we  can  work  together  side  by 
side,  with  one  heart  and  one  soul,  one  earnest  purpose 
and  one  glorious  hope.  Long  may  Clieshunt  College 
flourish  to  be  a  witness  to  the  unity  of  all  true  Christians 
in  Him  who  is  the  truth,  and  to  send  out  generation 
after  generation  of  faithful  heralds  of  the  truth,  who  will 
not  read  essays,  or  spin  theories,  or  elaborate  arguments, 
but  hold  up  to  the  eyes  of  men  the  thorn-crowned 
Saviour,  and  say :  "  Behold  the  Man  !  Behold  your 
King  ! — the  Man  of  Sorrows,  the  King  of  Glory,  the 
tender,  mis^htv  Saviour  of  Mankind  !  " 


lY. 

GOD  KNOWN  IN  CHRIST. 

TT  is  quite  understood,  and  fully  admitted,  tliat  there 
can  be  no  absolute  knowledge  of  God,  So  far  our 
Agnostic  friends  are  right.  But,  though  this  is  true,  it 
is  not  new.  In  one  of  the  oldest  books  in  the  Bible  we 
have  it  quite  forcibly  expressed :  "  Canst  thou  by  search- 
ing find  out  God  ?  canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty 
unto  perfection  ?  It  is  as  high  as  heaven  ;  what  canst 
thou  do  ?  deeper  than  hell ;  what  canst  thou  know  ? " 
(Job  xi.  7,  8). 

This  is  manifestly  true  as  regards  God  ;  but  is  not  the 
same  thing  true  on  a  small  scale  in  regard  to  our  fellow - 
man  ?  Which  of  us  knows  even  his  most  intimate  friend 
right  through  and  through  ?  This  is  true,  even  though 
our  friend  may  be  below  us  in  attainments  ;  and  it  will 
be  even  more  true  of  friends  who  are  above  us.  Our 
knowledge  of  one  another  is  in  every  case  limited  by  two 
things  :  capability  of  expression  on  the  one  hand,  and  power 
of  comprehension  on  the  other.  There  may  be  much  in  the 
soul  of  my  friend  that  is  never  expressed  ;  never  expressed 
in  look,  or  tone,  or  word,  or  deed.  There  may  be  much 
in  him  that  cannot  be  expressed ;  there  may  be  much  he 
would  not  express  if  he  could,  much  he  could  not  express 
if  he  would.  And  then,  on  the  other  hand,  there  may  be 
very  much  of  what  is  expressed  that  I  cannot  understand 
or  catch. 


GOD    KNOWN   IN    CHPvIST.  69 

To  illustrate  this  still  further — for  it  seems  of  very- 
great  importance  in  reference  to  the  knowledge  of  God — 
let  us  consider  what  means  we  have  of  gaining  a  know- 
ledge of  such  an  one  as  Michel  Angelo.  There  are 
fragments  of  revelation  of  the  spirit  of  Michel  Angelo 
scattered  far  and  wide  throughout  the  galleries  of  Europe, 
first  in  originals,  then  in  casts,  or  copies,  so  that  every- 
body has  an  opportunity  of  knowing  something  about 
him.  Then  there  are  poems  of  his  which  give  a  further 
revelation  of  the  man  to  those  who  have  an  opportunity  of 
reading  them.  These  are  all  expressions  of  the  spirit  of 
the  man,  and  it  would  not  be  an  abuse  of  language  to 
put  them  together  and  call  them  the  Word  of  Michel 
Angelo.  But  it  is  quite  evident  that  our  knowledge  of 
him  will  depend  not  only  on  our  opportunity  of  seeing 
and  studying  these  works,  but  also  and  still  further  on 
the  degree  in  which  our  spirit  is  kindred  with  his,  the 
degree  in  which  we  can  understand  that  which  is  ex- 
pressed in  his  works. 

Suppose  now  that  from  such  a  study  of  his  works  we 
have  learned  something  of  the  reality  that  lurks  behind 
the  great  name  of  Michel  Angelo,  and  we  wish  to  learn 
still  more  about  him,  what  do  we  do  ?  We  take  up  his 
life  and  read  it.  How  much  more  knowledge  have  we 
now  of  the  great  artist  ?  That  will  depend  on  what  his 
biographer  has  been  able  to  catch  and  set  down  of  that 
which  was  expressed  in  his  life,  and  also  on  what  we  are 
able  to  take  in  and  understand  of  what  is  so  set  down. 
So  in  the  same  way  if  we  look  at  his  portrait,  what  we 
learn  from  it  will  depend  first  on  what  the  painter  has  been 
able  to  set  down  on  canvas  ;  and  second,  on  what  we  are 
able  to  see  in  that  which  is  set  down.  Still  further,  the 
case  would  not  be  altered  in  principle  even  if  we  had 
lived  in  his  time,  and  lived  with  him,  and  had  the  oppor- 


70  GOD    KNOWN   IN   CHRIST. 

tunity  of  seeing  him  every  day.  "We  should  thus  have 
had  a  far  better  opportunity  of  knowing  hira  ;  but  even 
then  our  knowledge  of  him  would  be  subject  to  the  same 
twofold  limitation.  First,  it  would  depend  on  how  much 
of  the  spirit  within  him  ever  uttered  itself  in  his  face  or 
gesture,  or  word  or  deed ;  and,  second,  on  our  ability  to 
comprehend  and  catch  that  which  was  thus  uttered.  And 
the  point  of  view  we  have  now  reached  is  a  favourable 
one  for  seeing  of  what  immeasurable  importance  this 
second  condition  is ;  for  is  it  not  manifest  that  it  would 
be  quite  possible  for  the  artist's  valet  de  chamhr,  if  he 
had  one,  to  know  less  of  the  true  Michel  Angelo  than 
some  kindred  soul  who  had  never  seen  him,  never 
even  read  his  life,  but  had  paid  one  visit  to  the  Sistine 
Chapel  ? 

From  all  this  it  is  evident  that  our  knowledge  of  our 
fellow-man  even  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances, 
must  be  partial  and  inadequate.  Why  then  should  we 
expect  a  full  and  adequate  knowledge  of  God  ?  But  then, 
even  the  imperfect  knowledge  we  can  have  of  each  other 
is  suflScient  for  the  purposes  of  life ;  and  why  may  not 
our  knowledge  of  God,  however  imperfect  and  inadequate 
in  an  absolute  sense,  be  not  only  real  knowledge  so  far  as 
it  goes,  but  amply  sufficient  for  all  purposes  of  life  ?  It 
all  depends  on  whether  God  has  expressed  Himself  at  all, 
and  whether  our  spirits  are  kindred  enough  with  His  to 
catch  that  which  He  has  expressed.  Thus  the  subject 
opens  out  into  two  great  questions :  first.  Has  God 
revealed  Himself?  second,  Can  we  enter  into  the  revela- 
tion so  as  to  make  out  what  is  revealed  of  Him  ?  The 
Scriptural  answer  to  the  first  question  is  the  Word ;  the 
Scriptural  answer  to  the  second  question  is  tlie  Spirit. 

The  Word  is  the  whole  utterance  of  God  in  nature,  in 
providence,  and  in  grace.      God  uttered  Himself  in  crea- 


GOD    KNOWN    IN    CHRIST.  7 1 

tion ;  just  as  tlie  artist  utters  liimself  iu  Lis  works. 
He  has  uttered  Himself  in  the  whole  history  of  the 
world.  He  has  spoken  to  the  fathers  by  the  prophets. 
These  are  different  utterances  of  the  Word,  but  they 
are  scattered  and  fragmentary,  like  the  scattered  work 
of  a  great  artist.  And  the  question  still  comes,  Is  there 
no  possibility  of  getting  nearer  to  Himself?  Is  there  no 
personal  revelation  ?  Has  no  one  looked  upon  a  face  with 
the  very  light  of  God  upon  it  ?  Has  no  one  listened  to  a 
voice  that  thrilled  with  the  very  love  of  God  Himself  ? 
Is  there  no  way  of  pressing  in  from  the  outer  circle  of 
His  works,  which  are  but  the  hem  of  His  garment,  to 
His  very  life,  and  soul,  and  heart  ?  Yes,  there  is  :  "  The 
Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us  (and  we  be- 
held His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of 
the  Father),  full  of  grace  and  truth."  "  God,  having 
of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers  in  the  prophets  by 
divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at  the  end  of 
these  days  spoken  unto  us  in  His  Son."  There  is  the 
central  point  of  the  revelation  of  God :  "  He  that  hath 
seen  Me,  hath  seen  the  Father."  The  rest  are  scattered 
rays  of  the  Divine  glory.  Here  is  the  central  Sun.  Here, 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  "  the  knowledge  of  the 
glory  of  God." 

So  much  for  the  Word,  the  utterance,  the  expression 
of  God  :  but  that  is  not  enough,  as  we  have  seen.  There 
must  also  be  a  soul  to  comprehend  it.  We  have  seen 
that  it  is  quite  possible  for  a  man  to  look  at  Michel 
Angelo's  works,  and  even  to  live  in  the  house  with  him 
from  day  to  day,  and  know  nothing  but  the  mere  shell  of 
him  ;  have  no  such  knowledge  of  him  as  to  be  any  better 
for  having  looked  at  him.  What  is  wanted  in  such  a 
case  ?  The  spirit  of  the  artist ;  not  in  all  its  vastness 
necessarily,  but  some  of  it — enough  to  give  sympathy, 


72  GOD    KNOWN   IX    CHRIST. 

appreciation,  deliglit  in  tlie  artist  and  his  work.  And  so 
here :  it  is  necessary  not  only  that  God  should  utter 
Himself  before  us,  but  that  God  should  give  us  of  His 
Spirit,  in  order  that  we  may  understand  what  He  has 
spoken.  True,  we  may  not  have  the  Spirit  without 
measure,  as  in  Christ,  but  up  to  the  measure  of  our 
capacity  we  may  be  filled  with  the  Spirit ;  and  that  will 
be  enough,  even  though  our  capacity  be  small,  to  secure 
sympathy,  appreciation,  and  delight  in  Christ,  and  all 
that  is  His ;  and  so  the  promise  shall  be  fulfilled,  "  He 
shall  take  of  Mine  and  show  it  unto  you." 

Thus  it  comes  to  pass,  that  the  two  natural  difficulties 
that  stand  in  the  way  of  our  knowledge  of  God  are  met 
in  God's  revelation  of  Himself,  first  in  His  Son,  who  in 
this  relation  is  appropriately  spoken  of  as  "  The  Word  ; " 
and  second,  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  one  is  the  needed 
revelation  without  us,  and  the  other  the  needed  revelation 
within  us.  The  two  are  present  in  one  view  in  that  mag- 
nificent utterance  of  the  apostle,  "  God,  who  commanded 
the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  hath  shined  in  our 
hearts  [the  revelation  within  us],  to  give  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ "  [the  revelation  without  its].  The  two  together  give 
us  every  facility  for  knowing  our  Father  in  Heaven  which 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  have.  Even  at  the  best  and  fullest, 
our  knowledge  will  remain  partial  and  inadequate.  It 
will  be  very  far  from  absolute  knowledge ;  it  will  be 
wholly  relative ;  but  it  will  be  trustworthy,  trustworthy 
as  the  light,  which  of  all  material  things  about  us  comes 
nearest  to  the  expression  of  the  Divine  nature ;  and  it 
will  be  blessed,  blessed  as  love,  which  of  all  that  is 
within  us  is  most  akin  to  God  Himself.  The  light  of  the 
glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Christ  without,  and  the  love 
of  God  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the   Holy  Ghost 


GOD    KNOWN    IN    CHRIST.  y  T, 

witliin — these  are  wLat  are  needed  to  give  us  that  know- 
ledge, which,  however  partial  and  inadequate  at  the  best, 
is  yet  life  eternal.  And  these,  the  light  without  us  and 
the  love  witliin  us,  are  all  that  are  needed,  for  "  God  is 
light "  and  "God  is  love." 

It  remains  to  be  noticed  that  the  meeting-point  of  all 
is  in  CJtrist.  We  have  seen  already  that  in  the  Incarnate 
Word  the  scattered  rays  of  the  glory  of  God,  which  had 
been  revealed  in  a  fragmentary  way  before,  were  gathered 
together,  concentrated  as  the  soul  of  man  is  in  his  face ; 
and  just  as  in  your  intercourse  with  a  friend  you  keep 
looking  into  his  face,  while  you  do  not  quite  lose  sight  of 
his  form  or  even  of  his  garment's  hem,  so  in  order  to 
acquaintance  with  God  we  should  keep  looking  on  Jesas, 
Who  is  the  face  of  God,  while  we  do  not  lose  sight  of 
anything  in  the  works  of  God  that  may  help  to  set  Him 
more  fully  before  us. 

But,  besides  this,  the  other  need  of  which  we  have 
spoken  is  met  in  Christ.  Not  only  does  He  reveal  the 
Father  to  us,  but  He  gives  His  Spirit  that  we  may 
understand  the  revelation.  He  promises  to  give  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  all  who  come  unto  Him.  So  the  whole  know- 
ledge of  the  Father  is  provided  in  Christ.  We  are 
"  complete  in  Him."  He  says,  "  All  things  are  delivered 
unto  Me  of  My  Father :  and  no  man  knoweth  the  Son, 
but  the  Father ;  neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father, 
save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal 
Him.  Come  unto  Me."  And  long  after,  the  beloved 
disciple,  having  found  it  all  true,  expresses  it  thus  :  "  We 
know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come  [tJie  revelation  with- 
out], and  hath  given  us  an  understanding,  that  we  may 
know  Him  that  is  true  "  [_the  revelation  ivithiii]. 

From  all  this  it  follows  that  those  who  would  know 
God  must  seek  Him  in  Christ.      "  No  man  cometh  unto 


74  GOI>    KNOWN    IN   CHRIST. 

the  Father  but  by  Me."  Need  we  then  wonder  that  very 
many  of  the  most  learned  and  patient  searchers  after 
truth  never  find  God  ?  It  is  not  that  they  are  dishonest ; 
it  is  that  they  do  not  look  in  the  right  direction.  It  is 
not  by  the  use  of  those  faculties  which  are  the  glory  of 
the  learned  and  great ;  it  is  not  by  any  process  of  induc- 
tion, or  labour  of  logic ;  no,  it  is  simply  by  looking,  by 
the  lifting  up  of  our  souls  to  our  loving  Father, — the  eye, 
the  ear,  the  heart  of  faith  all  open  to  see  His  face,  to 
hear  His  voice,  to  welcome  His  love.  If  our  learned 
people  would  only  give  up  dealing  with  propositions  and 
with  questions  and  with  abstract  truth,  and  would  simply 
seek  the  Lord,  they  would  soon  find  Him.  If  any  one 
is  minded  to  wrestle  with  questions,  he  can  easily  find  a 
million  of  questions  to  wrestle  with ;  bat,  alas !  such 
wrestling  will  lead  to  no  daybreak,  and  there  will  be  no 
Peniel  to  keep  it  in  memory.  If,  instead  of  wrestling 
with  problems  and  questions,  men  would,  like  poor,  weak 
Jacob,  wrestle  with  God,  then  the  day  would  dawn,  their 
darkness  would  be  dispelled,  and  the  light  of  God  would 
stream  upon  them.  Then  would  they  understand  how  it 
is  that  men  in  all  ages  who  have  walked  with  God,  have 
learned  to  know  IVliom  they  have  believed,  however 
little  they  may  have  been  able  to  expound  fully,  or 
2xxst\f J  wholly,  ivhat  they  have  believed.  "When  Thou 
saidst,  Seek  ye  My  face,  my  heart  said  unto  Thee,  Thy 
face.  Lord,  will  I  seek."  It  is  all  there,  the  philosophy  of 
it,  the  simplicity  of  it.  Look  at  it !  First,  it  is  not  the 
absolute  essence  of  Deity  that  we  are  to  seek ;  it  is  His 
face,  what  of  Him  is  turned  to  us,  so  that  we  can  see 
and  recognise  Him.  Then,  it  is  not  elaborate  searching, 
it  is  simple  seeking.  A  wise  man  may  search  much  and 
discover  nothing ;  but  even  the  child  that  seeks  shall 
surely  find.     For,  finally,  it  is  a  matter  not  of  the  Intel- 


GOD    KNOWN   IN    CHEIST.  75 

lect  so  mucli  as  of  the  heart  and  will :  "  When  Thou 
saidst,  Seek  ye  My  face,  my  heart  said  unto  Thee,  Thy 
face.  Lord,  will  I  seek." 

Perhaps  a  difficulty  may  occur  to  some  who  remember 
that  it  is  an  Old  Testament  passage  we  are  quoting,  and 
that  at  the  time  God  had  not  been  revealed  in  Christ. 
But  had  He  not  ?  Let  us  not  forget  that  "  in  the 
beginning  was  the  Word."  Let  us  not  forget  that  it 
was  the  Son  of  God  all  through  who  revealed  the  Father. 
"  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time ;  the  only 
begotten  Son  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He 
hath  declared  Him."  The  incarnation  is  a  great  help  to 
realise  the  personality  of  God  ;  but  it  must  never  be  for- 
gotten that  personality  consists  not  in  body,  but  in  spirit. 
Even  when  the  Word  was  in  flesh,  a  spiritual  manifesta- 
tion was  necessary  ("  Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed 
it  unto  thee,  but  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven  ").  And 
that  manifestation  of  spiritual  presence  was  possible  be- 
fore the  incarnation,  just  as  it  is  still  our  privilege  long 
after  it.  The  question  put  and  answered  when  Christ 
was  still  on  earth  makes  it  clear :  "  How  is  it  that  Thou 
wilt  manifest  Thyself  unto  us,  and  not  unto  the  world  ? 
Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  If  a  man  love  Me  he 
will  keep  My  words ;  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and 
We  will  come  unto  him,  and  make  Our  abode  with  him." 

The  essential  point  is  this,  that  we  must  seek  personal 
acquaintance  with  God,  we  must  seek  His  face ;  there 
should  be  an  outgoing  of  our  souls  to  our  Father  in 
heaven,  as  He  has  manifested  Himself  unto  us.  Even  in 
Old  Testament  times  it  was  always  in  this  way  that  God 
became  known.  Hence  the  prominence  given  to  "  the 
Name "  of  God.  What  was  the  Name  of  God  ?  It 
included  all  of  God  that  had  been  then  exposed  to  view. 
It  was  all  of  His  face  that  men  had  then  seen  or  could 


76  GOD  KNOWN   IN   CHRIST. 

see.  "We  can  see  more  of  it  now.  We  have  "  tlie  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  who  is  "  the  image  of  the  Invisible  God,"  "  the 
express  image  of  His  person."  But  our  attitude  must 
be  the  same  as  theirs.  There  must  be  the  lifting  up  of 
the  heart,  the  outgoing  of  the  soul,  the  spiritual  act  of 
which  this  is  the  simplest  expression,  "  When  Thou 
saidst,  Seek  ye  My  face,  my  heart  said  unto  Thee,  Thy 
face,  Lord,  will  I  seek." 

The  knowledge  of  God,  as  we  have  seen,  begins  by 
"  looking  unto  Jesus."  It  grows  by  abiding  in  His 
presence,  and  keeping  up  communion  with  Him.  As 
soon  as  we  come  to  Him,  we  receive  something  of  His 
Spirit,  and  are  able  to  understand  a  little.  As  we  stay 
with  Him  and  walk  with  Him,  we  receive  more  and 
more,  and  are  able  to  understand  more.  For  the  two 
processes  go  on  together,  the  revelation  without,  and 
the  revelation  within ;  the  light  and  the  love ;  the  shin- 
ing in  our  hearts,  and  the  vision  of  the  glory  on  the  face 
of  Christ.  The  more  we  see  of  the  Divine  in  Him,  the 
more  we  receive  of  the  Divine  ourselves  ;  and  the  more 
we  receive  of  the  Divine  in  ourselves,  the  more  we  see 
of  the  Divine  in  Him.  By  equal  steps  we  "  grow  in 
grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 
Or,  as  another  apostle  puts  it,  "  We  all  with  open  face 
beholding  as  in  a  glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed 
into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord."  And  a  third  apostle  (the  apostle  of 
love,  as  the  others  are  of  faith  and  of  hope),  putting  the 
climax  on  it  all,  draws  the  veil  a  little  aside  from  the 
glorious  consummation,  thus  :  "  When  He  shall  be  mani- 
fested '' — (not  the  mere  limited  and  partial  manifestation 
which  is  all  that  is  possible  now,  but  the  fuller  manifes- 
tation to  which  we  are  taught  to  look  forward  in  glorious 


GOD    KNOWN    IN    CHRIST.  ']'] 

hope  at  the  second  coming  of  the  Lord) — "  When  He 
shall  be  manifested,  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall 
see  Him  as  He  is." 

Oh,  blessed  knowledge  of  God,  revealed  in  His  Son, 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ !  0  Thou  who  art  Light,  shine 
in  our  hearts,  to  give  us  "  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  0  Thou  who  art  Love, 
dwell  in  our  hearts,  and  teach  us  to  enter  into  the 
mystery  of  His  cross  and  passion,  and  so  to  begin  "  to 
comprehend  with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth,  and 
length,  and  depth,  and  height ;  and  to  know  the  love  of 
Christ,  which  passeth  knowledge."  And  then  shall  we 
understand  better  what  the  great  Revealer  and  Redeemer 
meant  when  He  said,  "  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they 
might  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  Thou  hast  sent." 


THE  TRINITY  AS  TAUGHT  BY  CHRIST. 

ri'^HE  word  "  Trinity"  does  not  occur  in  Scripture,  nor 
is  tliere  anything  to  be  found  there  corresponding  to 
those  complicated  formulas  by  which  (notably  in  the  so 
called  Athanasian  Creed)  theologians  have  tried  to  define 
the  relations  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  is  involved  throughout  in  the  language 
of  the  New  Testament,  but  it  is  never  defined,  there  is  no 
attempt  whatever  to  explain  the  mysteries  which  are  in- 
separable from  all  thought  as  to  the  being  and  manifes- 
tations of  God  ;  when  the  subject  is  referred  to  it  is  always 
for  practical  purposes,  not  for  tlie  satisfaction  of  the  specu- 
lative reason ;  hence  not  only  the  language  but  even  the 
thought  is  simple.  The  simple  practical  thoughts  are 
like  familiar  objects  of  nature  standing  clear  and  well- 
defined  before  us ;  but  all  around  and  behind  and  above 
there  is  the  infinite  azure  with  its  measureless  depths, 
and  if  men  would  only  content  themselves  with  seeing  in 
sharp  definition  that  which  is  capable  of  it,  and  leaving 
the  atmosphere,  as  in  nature,  in  vague  illimitable  pro- 
fundity, they  would  see  clearly  all  that  it  is  necessary  to 
see,  while  the  invisible  and  unfathomable  background 
would  have  all  its  value  as  an  atmosphere  without  any 
attempt  being  made  to  penetrate  it  or  set  it  bounds.  If 
theologians  had  only  followed  the  Scriptures  in  this  re- 
spect, how  many  bitter  controversies  might  have  been 


THE    TEINITY    AS    TAUGHT   BY    CHRIST.  79 

spared,  and  Iiow  many  needless  difficulties  and  perplexities 
would  have  been  avoided. 

We  cannot  have  a  better  illustration  of  our  thought 
than  is  afforded  by  those  striking  words  of  our  Lord,  in 
which  He  speaks  of  Himself  as  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and 
the  Life.  There  we  see  our  familiar  Friend  and  Saviour, 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  set  before  us  in  a  threefold  relation. 
He  Himself  stands  out  clear  before  us  in  His  human 
nature,  in  the  midst  of  the  sorrowful  little  company  in 
the  upper  room  ;  and  what  He  says  of  Himself  is  perfectly 
simple  in  all  its  practical  relations ;  and  yet  there  is  an 
atmosphere  of  mystery  all  around  it,  where  the  speculative 
mind  may  very  readily  lose  itself.  Yet  there  is  no  need 
to  lose  ourselves  :  Christ  is  speaking,  not  for  the  specu- 
lative mind,  but  for  the  troubled  heart,  which  He  longs 
to  comfort  with  the  assurance  of  a  Father's  love.  "  I  am 
the  Way,"  He  says.  The  way  whither  ?  we  ask,  and  the 
answer  to  this  "  whither"  leads  us  back  to  "  the  Father 
— of  an  infinite  majesty."  But  how  can  we  know  Him 
if  He  be  of  an  infinite  majesty  ?  We  cannot  grasp  the 
infinite.  We  cannot  see  Him.  We  cannot  reach  Him 
with  our  finite  powers  of  knowledge.  Alas,  are  we  not 
lost  ?  Listen  again  :  "  I  am  the  Truth,"  Let  not  your 
thoughts  roam  in  the  infinite.  Look  unto  Me,  I  am  the 
Way  ;  I  am  also  the  Truth  ;  I  not  only  show  you  how 
to  reach  the  Father,  I  am  Myself  the  revelation  of  the 
Father  to  you :  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the 
Father,"  "  I  am  the  Truth "  is  simple  and  practical, 
and  yet  therein  lies  all  the  mystery  of  the  divine  Sonship. 
"  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time ;  the  only  begotten 
Son  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  de- 
clared Him,"  But  something  more  is  necessary.  There 
must  not  only  be  the  objective  revelation  of  the  Divine, 
there  must  be  a  power  to  see  the  Divine  in  it.     "  Except 


8o  THE    TRINITY   AS    TAUGHT   BY    CHRIST. 

a  man  be  born  again,  be  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 
The  way  may  be  open,  but  without  this  new  birth  there  is 
no  desire  to  take  it.  The  Truth  may  be  clear,  but  without 
this  inward  light  there  is  no  power  to  see  it.  Not  only 
love  and  light  from  above  are  needed,  but  life  within, 
before  the  wants  of  man  are  fully  met.  Listen  again : 
"  I  am  the  Life,"  says  the  Lord  Jesus,  claiming  thus  the 
special  prerogative  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  so  that  within  the 
compass  of  these  few  simple  words  we  have  "  the  Father, 
of  an  infinite  majesty.  His  honourable,  true,  and  only 
Son,  also  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  then,  are  all  here ;  but 
in  no  perplexing  separation  or  confusion  ;  they  are  all 
in  Christ  Jesus ;  "  I  am  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life."  The  Father  is  here ;  but  we  do  not  see  Him  in 
His  infinite  majesty,  we  see  Him  as  He  is  revealed  in  the 
man  Christ  Jesus ;  the  eternal  Son  is  here,  but  we  do  not 
see  Him  in  His  eternal  glory,  for  it  is  veiled  in  mortal 
flesh.  The  Spirit  is  here,  but  only  as  the  stream  is  in 
the  fountain — the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  yet  given,  but  the 
promise  of  the  gift  is  even  now  on  the  Saviour's  lips,  the 
promise  of  the  Comforter,  the  Life  Giver,  ready  to  be  sent 
as  soon  as  His  work  as  Opener  up  of  the  "Way  and 
Revealer  of  the  Truth  is  done.  Yes,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost  are  all  here,  each  found  in  Him,  so  that  our 
thoughts  are  not  to  leave  Christ  when  they  pass  to  the 
Father,  or  to  the  Holy  Spirit — Christ  is  all — "In  Him 
dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily." 

Now  this  is  manifestly  the  way  in  which  we  are  intended 
to  realise  to  ourselves  the  truth  about  God  as  Father,  as 
Son,  and  as  Holy  Ghost — not  by  wandering  away  into  the 
infinite,  but  by  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  looking  up 
into  His  face.  How  simple  this  makes  it  all,  if  we  would 
only  be  content  with  the  simplicity  of  Scripture  ! 


THE    TRINITY    AS    TAUGHT    BY   CHRIST.  8 1 

The  reason  wliy  some  get  into  difficulty  and  perplexity 
is  their  perverse  determination — notwithstanding  all  the 
directions  and  cautions  the  Master  has  given — to  seek  a 
separate  knowledge  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  They 
wish  to  know  God  the  Father,  and  in  order  to  find  Him 
they  look  away  from  Christ,  instead  of  at  Him  ;  they  gaze 
into  the  infinite  unknown  instead  of  looking  at  the  face 
of  Jesus.  And  when  they  think  of  the  Spirit,  again  they 
must  have  this  as  a  separate  region  of  theological  lore, 
so  again  they  look  away  from  the  face  of  Jesus  to  find 
somewhere  else  God  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  they  could  have 
what  they  are  vainly  seeking,  they  would  have  three  Gods 
instead  of  one,  as  practically  many  puzzled  Christians  have. 
For  they  actually  have  great  difficulty  sometimes  as  to 
which  of  the  Three  to  go  to.  What  Christian  minister 
has  not  again  and  again  been  consulted  by  good  people, 
who  were  in  some  perplexity  as  to  which  of  the  Three 
Persons  of  the  Trinity  they  should  address  themselves  to. 
And  what  is  worse,  there  are  those  who  are  afraid  of 
praying  too  much  to  one  Person,  and  too  little  to  another, 
with  the  notion  evidently  in  their  poor  confused  minds 
that  there  is  danger  of  jealousy  between  them  ! 

It  is  very  easy  to  show  how  utterly  needless  all  this 
perplexity  is,  and  how  thoroughly  unscriptural  are  all 
those  notions  out  of  which  it  grows.  There  is  only  one 
Person  to  whom  any  one  can  go,  and  that  Person  is 
Christ.  We  should  go  to  Him  always,  under  all  cir- 
cumstances— with  our  prayers,  with  our  tears,  with  our 
longings,  with  our  doubts,  with  our  difficulties,  with  our 
troubles,  with  our  innumerable  wants. 

But  does  not  Christ  Himself  teach  us  to  pray,  saying, 
"  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven  "  ?  Perfectly  true  ;  but 
when  we  say  "  Our  Father,"  we  must  look  to  Christ,  for 
He  plainly  tells  us  that  we  cannot  reach  the  Father  but 


82  THE   TRINITY   AS    TAUGHT   BY    CHRIST. 

by  Him  ("  I  am  the  Way ")  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  we 
cannot  hold  the  Father  in  our  thought  without  filling 
our  minds  with  Christ  ("  I  am  the  Truth ").  Christ 
Himself  says,  as  plainly  as  tongue  can  express  it,  that  it 
is  impossible  to  know  the  Father  apart  from  Him.  "No 
man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me."  And  when, 
even  after  that  plain  statement,  the  still  puzzled  disciple 
says,  "  Lord,  show  us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us," 
what  can  the  Master  do  but  repeat  the  same  truth  in 
still  more  emphatic  terms,  as  if  He  said  to  Philip,  "  You 
are  seeking  the  Father,  are  you  ?  And  yet  you  are 
looking  away  from  Me  up  into  the  unfathomable  heaven  ; 
look  not  there,  look  here — do  you  not  know  Me  yet  ?  " 
"  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father."  Who 
can  suppose  that  Philip  retained  his  perplexity  after  so 
clear  an  answer  ?  Why  should  any  one  be  perplexed 
now  ? 

What  has  been  the  consequence  of  trying  to  know  the 
Father  otherwise  than  by  going  to  Christ  ?  Agnosticism. 
Let  any  man  of  clear  intellect  and  strong  logical  power 
begin  by  rejecting  Christ  and  he  is  sure  to  end  in 
Agnosticism,  which  is  only  a  confirmation  of  our  Saviour's 
doctrine,  "  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me." 
There  is  no  way  to  the  Father  through  halls  of  science 
or  academic  groves.  Christ  is  the  only  way,  and  those 
who  turn  away  from  Him  set  their  faces  to  the  outer 
darkness. 

The  same  considerations  apply  to  those  who  perplex 
and  confuse  themselves  by  trying  to  have  a  knowledge  of 
the  Spirit  apart  from  their  knowledge  of  Christ.  Our 
Saviour  is  most  careful  to  guard  against  this  error.  He 
had  said  indeed,  "  It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth  ;  "  but 
He  feels  under  no  constraint  to  say,  "  I  am  the  Way  and 
the  Truth,  hU  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Life,"  as  if  the  work  of 


THE    TRINITY   AS    TAUGHT    BY    CHRIST.  St, 

the  Spirit  were  to  be  thought  of  as  separate  from  His  own 
person  and  power.  With  the  same  emphasis  with  which 
He  claims  to  be  "  the  Way  "  and  "  the  Truth,"  He  claims 
Himself  to  be  "  the  Life."  He  speaks  indeed  of  the 
giving  of  "  another  Comforter,"  but  He  is  careful  to  say- 
that  the  Father  will  send  Him  "  in  My  name,"  and  to 
tell  them  that  when  He  comes  He  will  not  speak  of 
Himself,  but  "  He  shall  take  of  Mine,  and  show  it  unto 
you."  And  so  complete  is  the  identification  that  the 
Lord  speaks  of  the  Spirit's  coming  as  His  own  coming : 
"  I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless,  I  will  come  to  you." 
Still  further,  as  if  to  anticipate  any  difficulty  which  might 
be  felt  as  to  the  language  which  sometimes  speaks  both 
of  the  Father  and  of  the  Spirit  as  separate  from  Himself, 
He  adds,  "At  that  day  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  the 
Father,  and  ye  in  Me,  and  I  in  you."  "  I  am  in  the 
Father  " — there  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Father.  "  Ye  in 
Me  " — there  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Son.  "  I  in  you  " — 
there  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Spirit.  That  there  is  a  great 
region  of  mystery  is  evident ;  but  we  do  not  need  to 
explore  it,  for  if  we  think  of  the  Father,  there  is  Christ, 
"  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in  Me " — if  we 
think  of  the  Son,  union  to  Christ  is  the  practical  thought, 
"  ye  in  Me  " — if  we  think  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  prac- 
tical thought  is  Christ  in  us,  "I  in  you,"  as  He  puts  it 
here. 

It  comes  to  this,  that  practically  Christ  is  all  and  in 
all.  "  I  am  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the  Life."  It 
is  "  I  am "  all  the  way  through.  The  Divine  name  is 
all  in  Christ.  "  Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God  is  one 
Lord."  There  need  be  no  confusion.  There  need  be  no 
perplexity.  The  unsearchable  God  has  made  Himself 
known  to  us  as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  But  all 
that  there  is  for  us  in  the  Father — all  that  there  is  for 


84  THE   TRINITY    AS    TAUGHT    BY    CHRIST. 

US  in  the  Son — all  tliat  there  is  for  us  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
— is  manifest  in  Christ.  He  is  all  and  in  all.  All  praise 
and  glory  to  Christ  the  Son — the  only  E-evealer  of  the 
Father,  the  only  Fountain  of  the  Spirit.  Let  our  prayer 
always  be  to  Him,  whether  we  are  looking  at  the  Father 
as  revealed  in  Him,  or  whether  we  are  looking  to  Him  as 
the  source  whence  flow  the  streams  of  the  Spirit's  life. 

Let  us  attempt  a  very  simple  illustration  to  make  our 
meaning  plain.  When  I  speak  to  you  or  listen  to  you  I 
always  look  into  your  face.  But  though  I  am  looking  at 
your  face,  I  am  not  speaking  to  it ;  I  am  speaking  to 
the  invisible  soul  of  which  the  face  is  the  outward  expres- 
sion or  incarnation ;  and  again,  when  I  am  silent  and 
listening  to  you  I  still  look  into  your  face,  but  it  is  not 
the  face  that  is  reaching  me,  it  is  the  stream  of  sound 
coming  from  it  and  penetrating  into  me.  But  in  the 
whole  process  there  is  no  confusion  between  the  invisible 
soul  which  seems  at  a  distance,  the  visible  face  which  is 
before  me,  and  the  invisible  stream  of  sound  coming  from 
it  as  it  were  into  me — the  face  is  all  I  concern  myself 
with. 

And  so,  whether  we  are  thinking  of  the  invisible  God 
quite  out  of  reach,  or  of  the  invisible  Spirit  proceeding 
from  Him  and  entering  into  us,  the  eye  of  our  faith  is  ever 
directed  to  Him  who  is  for  us  the  face  of  God.  "  God  who 
commanded  the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness  hath  shined 
in  our  hearts,  to  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  Here  is  another 
of  those  passages  where  the  Trinity  is  in  the  background  : 
for  light  shining  out  of  darkness,  suggests  the  Father ; 
shining  in  our  hearts,  suggests  the  Spirit ;  shining  re- 
flected from  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  there  is  the  Son, 
But  in  all  there  is  no  confusion,  for  there  is  only  one 
face  to  look  at.      Let  us  call  Him  Father  by  all  means, 


THE   TRINITY   AS    TAUGHT    BY    CHRIST.  85 

but  as  we  do  so  we  must  look  at  His  face  ;  let  us  think 
of  Him  as  Spirit  and  welcome  Him  as  Spirit,  but  as  we 
do  so  we  still  must  look  at  His  face.  There  is  only  one 
face — only  one  direction  for  the  eye  of  faith  to  take — no 
confusion,  no  perplexity ;  all  is  simple  as  when  a  man 
speaks  to  his  friend.  "  God  who  commanded  the  light 
to  shine  out  of  darkness  hath  shined  in  our  hearts, 
to  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
God  in  '  the  face  '  of  Jesus  Christ." 

There  are  three  great  facts  in  the  history,  and  factors 
in  the  work  of  Christ,  which  correspond  to  this  threefold 
relation  He  sustains  to  the  Deity  and  to  us.  These  are 
His  holy  incarnation,  His  atoning  death,  and  His  blessed 
resurrection.  In  virtue  of  His  incarnation  He  is  the 
Truth.     For— 

"So  the  "Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
"With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought  ; 

"  Which  he  may  read  that  hinds  the  sheaf, 
Or  builds  the  house,  or  digs  the  grave, 
And  those  wild  ej-es  that  watch  the  wave 
In  roarings  round  the  coral  reef." 

Thus  by  His  holy  incarnation  He  is  the  Truth. 

By  His  atoning  death  He  has  opened  up  the  Way ;  as 
it  is  put  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews :  "  Having, 
therefore,  brethren,  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest  by 
the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  a  new  and  living  way,  which  He 
hath  consecrated  for  us,  through  the  veil,  that  is  to  say. 
His  flesh ;   ...   let  us  draw  near  "  to  God. 

And,  then,  by  His  resurrection  and  ascension.  He 
has  been  exalted  as  the  Fountain  of  Life  ;  for  thus  it  is 
that  on  the  great  day  of  Pentecost  the  inspired  apostle 


86  THE   TRINITY    AS    TAUGHT    BY    CHRIST. 

explains  the  Pentecostal  gift :  "  This  Jesus  hath  God 
raised  up,  whereof  we  all  are  witnesses.  Therefore  being 
by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and  having  received 
of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  He  hath 
shed  forth  this."  Thus  the  incarnation  is  specially  sug- 
gestive of  the  Truth  concerning  the  Father ;  the  atone- 
ment, of  the  Way  opened  up  by  the  Son ;  and  the 
resurrection,  of  the  Life  brought  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

There  is  the  same  threefold  relation  in  the  familiar 
offices  of  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King.  The  Lord  Jesus 
came  to  earth  as  Prophet,  bringing  from  heaven  the  Truth 
of  God ;  He  returned  as  Priest  made  perfect  through 
suffering,  opening  by  His  death  the  Way  from  earth  to 
heaven ;  He  comes  again  as  King,  in  the  power  of  His 
Spirit,  to  reign  in  human  hearts — all  which  is  but  an 
expansion  of  these  most  wonderful  words :  "  I  am  the 
Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the  Life." 

Once  more,  see  how  in  this  threefold  relation  all  the 
wants  of  our  poor  sinful  humanity  are  met.  To  the 
poor  bewildered  mind  in  its  darkness  comes  the  great 
Prophet  of  humanity,  the  heavenly  Apostle  of  our  profes- 
sion, bringing  down  to  us  the  knowledge  of  God,  which 
otherwise  would  have  been  impossible  to  us — bringing 
it  down  so  as  to  be  level  to  our  capacities.  It  is  per- 
fectly true  that  none  by  searching  can  find  out  God ;  and 
that  is  the  reason  why  God  has  sent  His  Son  to  search 
and  find  us,  and  so  bring  God  within  the  range  of  our 
vision  and  our  life.  All  this  is  included  in  the  simple 
words,  "  I  am  the  Truth."  Thus  the  mind  finds  rest  in 
Him. 

Then  there  is  the  guilty  conscience,  which  cries  out  for 
pardon  and  peace,  for  some  way  of  reconciliation  with  an 
offended  God ;  and  again  the  same  blessed  Saviour  steps 


THE    TEINITY    AS    TAUGHT    BY    CHRIST.  8/ 

forward  as  the  High  Priest  of  our  profession,  and  says  : 
"  Come  unto  Me  ;  "   "I  am  the  Way." 

Finally,  there  is  the  disordered  life,  the>i^eak  will,  the 
depraved  licart ;  and  once  again  the  same  Saviour  steps 
forward,  the  risen  Saviour  now,  and  says,  "  I  am  the 
Life,"   "  receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Yes  :  "  It  hath  pleased  the  Father  that  in  Him  should 
all  fulness  dwell."  So  whatever  perplexity  there  may  be 
to  the  mind,  that  endeavours  in  the  cold,  dry  atmosphere 
of  intellectual  speculation  to  solve  the  great  mystery,  to 
the  seeking  soul  there  need  be,  there  is,  neither  perplexity 
nor  confusion.  Ye  who  are  in  doubt  about  your  Father 
God,  come  to  Christ  as  your  Prophet,  and  you  will  find 
in  Him  the  Truth  you  long  for ;  ye  who  are  burdened 
with  guilt,  come  to  Christ  as  your  Priest,  and  you  will 
find  in  Him  your  way  to  pardon  and  peace ;  ye  who  are 
weary  of  sin  and  long  for  victory  over  evil,  accept  Him 
as  your  King,  and  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  will  rest 
upon  you,  the  power  of  an  endless  life.  "  Believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 


VI. 

UNION  WITH  CHRIST. 

''  T^HERE  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them 
-^  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus."  "  Whosoever  abideth  in 
Him  sinneth  not."  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in 
the  Lord."  These  three  declarations  set  forth  compre- 
hensively the  immunities  and  privileges  of  believers  in 
Christ.  The  first  guarantees  ^jcocc  luith  God;  the  second, 
purity  of  life  ;  and  the  third,  eternal  joy.  It  is,  however, 
most  important  to  observe  that  these  immunities  and 
blessings  are  all  conditional  on  union  with  Christ,  and 
that  a  union  of  a  unique  and  peculiar  kind.  "  No  con- 
demnation to  them  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus ;  "  no  sin 
in  the  case  of  those  who  abide  hi  Him  ;  and  a  blessed 
future  for  those  who  die  in  the  Lord.  None  of  the  cases 
of  personal  union  with  which  we  are  familiar  could  be 
expressed  in  this  way.  We  may  be  united  to  one  another 
in  various  ways,  by  ties  of  different  degrees  of  strength 
and  tenderness ;  but  we  never  speak  of  being  in  one 
another.  The  ties  which  bind  us  to  one  another  are  ties 
of  association,  of  connection,  and  of  contact ;  but  the 
relation  indicated  here  is  evidently  more  intimate  than 
any  of  these.  The  first  thing  we  have  to  do,  then,  in 
order  to  deal  with  this  great  subject,  is  to  try  to  under- 
stand as  clearly  as  possible  the  nature  of  the  relation  on 
which  this  security,  power,  and  fruitfulness  alone  are 
based. 


UNION   WITH   CHRIST.  89 

The  texts  quoted  are  all  from  the  latter  half  of  the 
New  Testament ;  and  this  is  no  mere  accident.  Texts  of 
the  same  kind  might  be  quoted  by  the  hundred  between 
the  one  in  Romans  and  the  one  in  the  Revelation ;  but 
not  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  New  Testament.  How  is 
this  ?  How  comes  it  that  our  Lord  has  so  little  to  say 
on  a  matter  so  important  ?  In  the  holy  Gospels  the 
relation  of  Christ  to  His  people  is  set  forth  in  a  variety 
of  ways.  He  is  the  Teacher,  they  the  disciples  ;  He  the 
Master,  they  the  servants ;  He  the  Leader,  they  the 
followers ;  and  so  on.  Then  there  are  also  tenderer 
relations  referred  to ;  as,  for  instance,  when  He  said, 
"  Whosoever  doeth  the  will  of  My  Father  which  is  in 
heaven,  the  same  is  My  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother." 
But  we  read  page  after  page  of  the  Gospels  without 
finding  the  intimate  view  of  the  relationship  expressed 
by  the  preposition  in  :  in  Christ  Jesus.  To  this  rule, 
however,  there  is  one  notable  exception  found  in  our 
Lord's  last  words  to  His  disciples  in  the  upper  chamber 
before  His  Passion — that  wonderful  last  discourse  re- 
corded by  St.  John.  In  that  discourse  the  thought  is 
not  only  introduced  but  is  brought  into  special  promi- 
nence. It  comes  in,  however,  by  way  of  anticipation. 
The  Saviour  is  looking  forward  to  the  time  after  He  shall 
have  left  them,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  shall  have  come  ; 
and  of  that  coming  time  He  says :  "  At  that  day  shall 
ye  know  that  I  am  in  My  Father,  and  ye  in  Me,  and  I 
in  you."  A  declaration  this  of  very  great  importance, 
though  it  has  received  wonderfully  little  attention.  The 
commentators  for  the  most  part  pass  it  by,  and  one 
rarely  hears  it  made  a  subject  of  discourse ;  yet  there  it 
stands,  the  very  first  passage  in  which  the  great  thought 
is  introduced  of  the  Christian  being  in  Christ. 

"  At  that  day  shall  ye  know  that  I  am  in  My  Father, 


90  UNION    WITH    CHEIST. 

and  ye  in  Me,  and  I  in  you."  From  tlie  way  in  which 
our  Saviour  thus  introduces  the  idea,  it  is  evident  that 
the  intimacy  of  this  relation  belongs  to  the  dispensation 
of  the  Spirit.  These  striking  words  indicate  the  new  way 
in  which  the  presence  of  Christ  must  thereafter  be  realised 
in  experience.  As  long  as  He  was  here  on  earth  His 
presence  with  His  disciples  was  manifested  through  the 
senses.  He  was  with  them  just  as  they  were  with  each 
other.  Sometimes  they  were  together,  sometimes  they 
were  apart,  and  His  nearness  or  distance  made  a  very 
great  difference  to  them.  They  were  strong  in  His 
presence,  and  in  His  absence  exceedingly  helpless  and 
weak.  And  now  that  His  presence  is  to  be  entirely 
withdrawn,  what  will  they  do  ?  The  prospect  seems 
hopeless  in  the  extreme.  Now  sorrow,  and  not  sorrow 
only,  but  something  akin  to  despair,  filled  their  hearts  at 
the  prospect  of  the  removal  from  them  of  that  presence 
in  which  they  had  found  their  safety,  their  strength,  and 
their  joy.  It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  our  Lord 
addressed  to  His  disciples  those  comforting  words  to  which 
we  have  referred.  And  the  substance  of  the  comfort 
He  thereby  gave  them  was  just  this  :  that  His  presence 
was  to  be  withdrawn  in  one  sense,  but  restored  in  an- 
other; it  was  to  be  withdrawn  in  an  inferior  degree,  to 
be  restored  in  a  far  better  way ;  it  was  to  be  with- 
drawn after  the  flesh  and  restored  in  the  Spirit ;  it 
was  to  be  withdrawn  as  a  human  presence,  and  restored 
as  a  Divine  presence ;  it  was  to  be  withdrawn  as  a  local 
presence,  and  restored  as  omnipresence ;  it  was  to  be 
withdrawn  as  an  occasional  and  temporary  presence,  and 
restored  as  a  perpetually  abiding  presence  :  all  which  is 
implied  in  the  transition  from  the  preposition  ivith  to 
the  preposition  in.  "We  cannot  go  beyond  the  pre- 
position vjith  when  speaking  of  a  human  presence.      We 


UNION   WITH    CHPJST.  9 1 

can  use  the  same,  indeed,  in  speaking  of  tlie  Divine 
presence,  and  our  Saviour  accordingly  used  the  old  and 
familiar  expression  when  He  gave  the  promise,  "  Lo,  I 
am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  ;  " 
for  whatever  of  nearness  is  involved  in  the  human  pre- 
sence is  there  too ;  but  there  is  much  more ;  so  much 
more  that  the  old  ivith  becomes  inadequate  :  the  intimacy 
is  much  greater :  that  which  was  nearness  in  the  flesh 
becomes  interpenetration  in  the  Spirit ;  so  that  in  effect 
He  says  to  His  disciples,  "  In  that  day,  when  ye  shall 
know  that  I  am  in  My  Father,  ye  shall  also  know  as  a 
matter  of  spiritual  experience,  that  ye  are  in  Me,  and  I 
in  you." 

Inasmuch  as  this  is  a  matter  of  spiritual  experience, 
known  only  to  those  who  have  received  the  Spirit,  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  to  speak  of  it  in  the  words  of  ordi- 
nary speech.  Hence  the  need  of  illustrations  from 
common  things  in  order  to  help  to  a  right  understand- 
ing of  it.  Accordingly,  our  Lord  presently  makes  most 
effective  use  of  the  illustration  of  the  vine-  and  the 
branches,  the  appropriateness  of  which  can  be  seen 
almost  at  a  glance.  The  relation  of  the  branch  to  the 
vine  is  not  simply  that  of  association  and  simple  connec- 
tion. The  branch  is  not  ivith  the  vine ;  it  is  in  it — it 
lives  the  life  of  the  vine — it  is  absolutely  dependent  for 
all  it  is,  and  all  it  can  ever  be,  and  all  it  can  produce, 
upon  the  vital  currents  which  come  to  it  from  the  vine. 
So  the  life  of  the  branch  is  not  the  branch's  life ;  it  is 
the  vine's  life  in  the  branch.  So  that  when  our  Saviour, 
looking  forward  to  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  very 
soon  to  begin,  says,  "  Abide  in  Me,  and  I  in  you,"  He 
explains  Himself  as  meaning.  Abide  in  Me  as  the  branch 
abides  in  the  vine,  and  I  in  you  as  the  life  of  the  vine 
abides  in  the  branch.      The  illustration  of  the  body  and 


92  UNION   WITH   CHRIST. 

its  members  so  frequently  used  by  the  Apostle  Paul  is  to 
the  same  effect  precisely.  The  hand  is  not  with  the  body 
merely,  it  is  in  it ;  it  lives  a  life  which  belongs  to  it  only 
so  long  as  it  is  in  the  body.  If  you  were  to  sever  it 
from  the  body,  its  life  would  cease.  So  our  position  in 
Christ  is  like  that  of  the  hand  in  the  body,  and  Christ 
living  in  us  is  like  the  life  of  the  body  animating  the 
hand. 

But  there  is  another  of  our  Lord's  illustrations  which 
will  perhaps  come  closer  to  the  point  of  view  suggested 
by  His  way  of  introducing  the  subject :  "  At  that  day " 
(evidently  the  day  when  the  Holy  Spirit  shall  have 
come)  "  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  My  Father,  and  ye 
in  Me,  and  I  in  you."  The  illustration  referred  to  is 
that  suggested  by  the  very  word  "  spirit,"  which  means 
breath  or  air,  and  also  by  the  words  addressed  to  Nico- 
demus  :  "  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  ...  so  is 
every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 

The  nearest  analogue  that  nature  has  to  spiritual,  as 
distinguished  from  bodily,  presence,  and  omnipresence,  as 
distinguished  from  mere  local  presence,  is  the  air — that 
vast  atmospheric  ocean  in  which  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being.  It  suggests  the  spiritual  because  we 
cannot  see  it,  and,  when  it  is  still,  we  cannot  feel  it ;  and, 
therefore,  it  is  quite  possible  to  be  surrounded  by  it,  and 
yet  not  be  conscious  of  its  presence.  And  then,  whither 
can  we  go  from  its  presence  ?  If  we  ascend  the  highest 
Alp,  it  is  there ;  if  we  descend  to  the  deepest  abyss,  it 
is  there ;  could  we  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and 
dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  there  should  we 
find  it  too.  And  then  not  only  are  we  always  in  it,  but 
it  is  no  less  true  that  it  is  always  in  us.  It  is  just  as 
necessary  to  our  life  that  the  air  should  be  in  us,  as  that 
we  should  be  in  it.      In  all  this  we  have  a  veiy  helpful 


UNION    WITH    CHRIST.  93 

illastration  of  what  the  presence  of  Christ  with  His  people 
is  under  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit.  Now  we  know 
that  He  is  in  the  Father.  His  human  presence  which  was 
here  on  earth  when,  as  Son  of  God,  He  veiled  His  glory- 
in  mortal  flesh — that  human  presence  is  now  withdrawn 
from  us ;  it  is,  so  far  as  our  power  to  recognise  it  is  con- 
cerned, merged  in  the  Divine  ;  so  that,  instead  of  being  a 
local  presence  as  before,  it  is  now  omnipresence ;  instead 
of  being  an  occasional  and  temporary  presence,  it  is  now 
abiding ;  instead  of  being  a  human  presence  merely,  it 
is  a  presence  like  this  elemental  air  which  fills  all  things, 
so  that  the  old  preposition  ivitli  becomes  inadequate,  and 
that  other  becomes  needful  to  express  the  intimacy,  the 
interpenetration  of  the  new  relationship.  We  are  in  it ; 
it  is  in  us. 

There  is,  however,  one  respect  in  which  the  illustra- 
tion falls  short.  We  are  in  the  air,  and  the  air  is  in  us 
by  necessity.  But  those  who  are  in  Christ,  and  He  in 
them,  are  there  by  choice.  They  once  lived  in  quite 
another  element ;  they  now  live  in  Him  :  they  formerly 
lived  in  the  human  element  of  selfishness ;  they  now  live 
in  the  Divine  element  of  love :  as  the  apostle  has  it, 
"  God  is  love ;  and  he  that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in 
God,  and  He  in  him."  But  even  at  this  point  we  are 
not  left  without  a  parable  in  nature  to  help  us.  So  far 
as  our  physical  life  is  concerned,  we  have  no  choice  of 
elements ;  we  must  live  in  the  air  or  else  not  live  at  all : 
there  is  no  option  in  the  matter.  But  in  the  spiritual 
life  there  is  an  option :  we  may  live  in  the  world  in  the 
old  element  of  selfishness,  or  we  may  live  in  Christ  in  the 
new  element  of  love.  Now,  though  we  cannot  find  an 
analogue  in  the  physical  life  of  man,  we  may  find  one  in 
other  lives,  God  has  given  us  many  illustrations  of  spiri- 
tual things  in  the  lives  of  the  lower  creatures.     Look,  for 


94  UxXION   WITH    CHRIST. 

instance,  at  the  history  of  the  dragon-fly  as  an  illustration 
of  this  point.  It  is  born  at  the  bottom  of  the  water.  For 
a  considerable  time  it  lives  there,  a  narrow,  low,  greedy 
life ;  for  that  particular  grub  is  said  to  be  exceedingly 
voracious.  It  creeps  about  on  the  submerged  parts  of  an 
aquatic  plant,  and  lives  on  aquatic  insects.  It  breathes 
air,  indeed,  but  only  as  other  inhabitants  of  the  water  do, 
by  an  apparatus  which  gets  out  of  the  water  the  small 
quantity  of  air  that  manages  to  filter  into  it  from  the 
atmosphere  above.  So  it  lives  on  and  on  in  utter  ignor- 
ance of  any  higher  and  better  life,  of  any  larger  or  more 
generous  supply  of  that  vital  air  by  means  of  which  it 
lives ;  until  at  last  one  day  there  comes  a  wondi'ous 
change,  taking  place  it  knows  not  how,  a  change  which 
cannot  be  better  described  than  in  the  words  of  the 
Laureate — 

"  To-day  I  saw  tlie  dragon-fly, 
Come  from  the  wells  where  he  did  lie. 
An  inner  impulse  rent  the  veil 
Of  his  old  husk ;  from  head  to  tail 
Came  out  clear  plates  of  sapphire  mail. 
He  dried  his  wings ;  like  gauze  they  grew ; 
Through  crofts  and  pastures  wet  with  dew, 
A  living  flash  of  light  he  flew." 

The  same  animal  as  before ;  but  how  different  the  life ! 
"  Old  things  have  passed  away,  behold  all  things  have 
become  new."  And  the  change  cannot  be  more  compre- 
hensively expressed  than  by  saying  that  it  now  lives  in  a 
new  element.  Formerly  it  lived  in  the  water,  now  it 
lives  in  the  air.  It  is  now  dead  to  the  water,  and  alive 
in  the  air.  Its  old  grub  life  is  gone  ;  its  new  ethereal, 
heavenly  life  has  begun.  It  is  true  that  even  when  it 
lived  under  the  water  it  could  not  get  on  without  air ; 
but  it  knew  nothing  about  it :   it  simply  took  in  so  much 


UNION   WITH    CHRIST.  95 

water  and  got  out  of  it  the  air  which  the  water  had 
absorbed.  And  so,  in  the  same  way,  even  those  that 
know  not  Christ,  and  have  no  experience  of  the  power  of 
His  resurrection,  are  not  independent  of  the  God  whom 
Christ  reveals.  They  are  not  conscious  of  His  presence, 
and  yet  they  could  not  live  without  Him ;  though  they 
get  from  Him  every  breath  they  draw,  they  have  no 
conscious  relation  to  Him,  while  in  works  they  utterly 
deny  Him — are  just  as  much  strangers  to  Him  as  the 
grub  living  at  the  bottom  of  the  muddy  pool  is  a  stranger 
to  the  glorious  sunshine  in  the  upper  air.  But  when  by 
faith  they  take  hold  of  Christ  they  are  lifted  out  of  the 
muddy  pool,  drawn  from  the  waters  of  sin  which  have 
submerged  them,  and  then  they  not  only  owe  their  life 
to  God,  as  all  along  in  a  dim  unconscious  way  they  have 
done,  but  now  they  know  that  they  are  in  Him,  living  a 
new  life  in  a  new  element,  bathed  in  the  sunlight  of 
His  presence,  surrounded  by  the  fresh  breezes  of  His 
Holy  Spirit — a  life  which  is  no  longer  bounded  by  the 
narrow  limits  of  a  little  muddy  pond,  butr  which  stretches 
out  on  all  sides  to  the  dim  horizon  of  indefinite  distance, 
and,  when  bounded  at  all,  it  is  by  the  everlasting  hills, 
over  which,  as  over  all,  is  spread  the  infinite  of  God's 
glorious  sky. 

And  how  different  the  temperature !  There  was, 
indeed,  power  to  sustain  life,  such  life  as  there  was,  in 
the  air  which  was  mixed  with  the  water ;  but  there  was 
no  genial  warmth  in  it,  and  these  gill-breathing  animals 
are  a  cold-blooded  race.  But  how  different  the  upper 
air,  the  air  that  is  warmed  by  the  rays  of  the  glorious 
Sun  of  Righteousness  ! 

And  the  light !  Here  again  we  have  a  favourite 
illustration  both  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  apostles.  The 
light  of  the  world  which  seemed  to  go  out  on  Calvary 


96  UNION   WITH    CHRIST. 

has  been  rekindled  in  the  heavens.  He  who  descended 
into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth  has  now  ascended  above 
earth's  horizon,  as  "  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  with 
healing  in  His  wings."  Who  has  not  observed  the  force 
of  that  beautiful  metaphor  which  the  prophet  Malachi 
employs  in  the  last  Old  Testament  promise  ?  What 
wings  are  those  he  speaks  of?  They  are  the  wings  of 
the  Holy  Dove,  that  other  Comforter  whom  our  Lord 
promised  to  send  from  the  high  heaven,  to  which  He 
was  about  to  go,  to  wrap  His  disciples  round  with  the 
light  and  the  warmth  of  His  own  perpetual  presence. 
See  how  beautifully  expressive  is  the  sacred  emblem. 
Christ  Himself  is  the  Sun  now  exalted  in  the  heavens. 
The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Light  which  streams  perpetually 
from  Him.  The  sun  in  the  sky  has  its  local  presence  in 
one  particular  place  in  the  heavens,  but  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  that  spot,  but  with  those  wonderful  wings  of 
his  fills  every  point  of  space  wherever  his  rays  are  not 
cut  off  by  intervening  obstacles ;  and  so,  too,  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  has  His  local  habitation  in  the  highest 
heavens,  and  yet  is  not  confined  to  it,  but  by  His  Holy 
Spirit  is  present  everywhere,  except  where  He  is  shut 
out  by  barriers  of  wickedness  erected  against  Him,  or 
excluded  by  soul- windows  fast  closed  within  by  those  who 
love  the  darkness  rather  than  the  light. 

"  At  that  day  shall  ye  know  that  I  am  in  My  Father." 
How  do  we  know  that  the  sun  is  shining  in  the  heavens  ? 
Only  by  the  light  which  streams  down  from  it  and 
reaches  our  eyes.  In  the  same  way,  "  No  man  can  say 
that  Jesus  is  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost ; "  or,  as  it  is 
in  the  Revised  Version,  "  No  man  can  say  Jesus  is  Lord, 
but  in  the  Holy  Spirit."  "At  that  day  ye  shall  know 
that  I  am  in  My  Father." 

"  And  ye  in  Me."     On  a  bright  but  chilly  day  in  early 


UNION    WITH    CHRIST.  97 

spring  a  man  sees  liis  friend  walking  on  the  shady  side  of 
the  street,  as  some  foolish  people  will  do.  He  calls  over 
to  him :  "  Come  and  walk  in  the  san  with  me."  The 
sun  is  many  millions  of  miles  away,  yet  we  speak  of  being 
in  it,  and  walking  in  it,  when  we  are  bathed  in  the  light 
and  warmth  continually  proceeding  from  it.  In  the  same 
way  are  we  in  Christ  when  we  are  surrounded  by  the 
gracious  loving  presence  of  His  Holy  Spirit.  So,  "  Ye 
in  Me." 

"  And  I  in  you."  Not  only  must  the  light  be  around 
us,  but  in  us,  before  we  can  be  said  to  live  in  it  and  walk 
in  it.  A  blind  man  is  surrounded  by  the  sunlight  as 
any  one  else  is,  but  he  does  not  live  in  it;  he  does  not 
walk  in  it ;  he  cannot  enjoy  it.  Why  not  ?  Simply 
because  it  is  not  in  him.  We  must  have  eyes ;  and 
these  eyes  must  be  opened  to  receive  the  light  into  the 
body,  so  that  we  may  live  in  it,  and  walk  in  it,  and  enjoy 
it.  And  in  the  same  way  must  the  eye  of  faith  be  opened 
to  receive  the  heavenly  light  into  the  soul  before  we  can 
even  be  aware  of  its  presence ;  and  it  must  be  kept  open 
in  order  that  we  may  "  walk  in  the  light  as  He  is  in  the 
light."  Christ  must  be  in  His  people  by  His  Holy  Spirit 
in  order  that  they  may  live  in  Him. 

Such  are  some  of  the  views  given  in  the  Scriptures  of 
the  nature  of  that  spiritual  union  in  which  is  found  the 
security,  strength,  fruitfulness,  and  joy  of  those  who  are 
"  in  Christ  Jesus." 


VII. 

UNITY  BY  THE  WAY  OF  THE  CROSS. 

^j^HERE  is  a  unity  of  tlie  Cliarcli  which  does  not  need 
to  be  sought  after  or  prayed  for,  because  it  is  already 
enjoyed.  The  oneness  of  all  true  believers  throughout  the 
world  with  their  Lord,  and  with  one  another  in  Him,  has 
already  existed  as  a  fact,  and  is  for  the  most  part  acknow- 
ledged by  those  within  its  hallowed  circle.  To  the  reality 
and  indefeasibility  of  this  union  all  evangelical  Christians 
count  it  a  privilege  to  bear  witness,  inscribing  on  their 
banner  the  motto,  ^^  Unum  corpus  sumus  in  Christo." 

But  we  should  not  be  satisfied  with  the  recognition 
and  declaration  of  this  spiritual  unity.  We  should  pray 
and  labour  for  a  unity  which  will  be  recognised  not  only 
within  itself,  but  by  those  that  are  without — the  unity 
for  which  our  Saviour  longed  so  earnestly  as  He  looked 
down  the  coming  ages  before  He  left  the  world :  a  unity 
so  manifest  that  the  world  must  see  it,  and,  seeing  it, 
cannot  but  be  convinced  that  He  around  Whom  all  so 
lovingly  gather  must  be  in  very  deed  the  Son  of  God 
and  King  of  men. 

Where  are  we,  now  that  we  are  nearing  the  closing 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  ?  How  far  have  we 
reached  ?  Surely  something  has  been  gained,  some  pro- 
gress made.  This  much,  surely,  at  all  events  :  that  we  have 
entered  on  the  right  path,  so  that  there  need  be  no  steps 
retraced.      If  we  do  not  yet  see  as  clearly  as  we  would 


UNITY    BY    THE    WAY    OF    THE    CHOSS.  99 

wish  liow  this  visible  manifest  union  is  to  be  attained,  W 
we  have  had  a  good  deal  of  quite  demonstrative  instruc-    , 
tion  as  to  how  it  is  not  to  be  attained.    We  have  learned, \K 
for  instance,  that  it  is  not  to  be  attained  by  organisation, 
political  or  ecclesiastical — that  it  is  a  thing  of  the  inner 
life,  and  not  of  the  outer  shell — that  it  cannot  be  attained 
by  building  a  great  house  round  about  a  divided  family, 
so  as  to  have  them  all  within  the  same  enclosure  ;   but 
that  its  essence  is  to  be  sought  in  the  one  spirit  per- 
vading the  family,  whether  they  all  dwell  under  the  same 
roof  or  not.    We  have  learned,  by  whatever  slow  degrees, 
the  old  lesson,  that  the  union  of  which  we  are  in  search 
is  a  union  like  that  which  subsisted  in  all  its  fulness  be- 
tween the  Father  and  the  Son  (John  xvii.  20-23),  even 
Avhen  one  was  in  heaven  and  the  other  on  earth. 

It  is  not  less  obvious  that  unity  is  not  to  be  reached 
through  forced  uniformity.  To  us  now,  who  have  learned 
the  lesson,  it  does  seem  very  strange  that  an  attempt  to 
reach  it  thus  could  have  been  made  by  those  who  had  in 
their  hands  the  New  Testament,  almost  every  page  of  which 
is  a  standing  rebuke  to  those  who  attach  vital  importance 
to  matters  of  form.  The  familiar  illustration  of  the  body 
and  its  members  might  have  been  a  sufficient  barrier 
against  so  foolish  an  error.  What  sort  of  bodies  should  we 
have  if  all  the  different  members  were  reduced  by  some  act 
of  uniformity  to  the  same  shape  ?  Then,  indeed,  might  the 
hand  say  to  the  foot,  "  I  have  no  need  of  thee  ;"  and  each 
of  them  to  the  head,  "  I  have  no  need  of  thee  ;"  for  head, 
feet,  and  hands  would  be  all  alike,  and  quite  too  many  of 
them !  We  may  certainly  now  set  it  down  as  among  the 
things  surely  believed  among  us,  that  true  Christianity 
is  not  a  thing  of  outward  form  but  of  inward  life — that 
"  in  Christ  Jesus  neither  circumcision  availeth  anything, 
nor    uncircumcision,    but   faith    workinj?    throug^h    love." 


lOO  UNITY    BY    THE  WAY  OF    THE    CROSS. 

And  here  again  we  are,  beyond  all  question,  in  the  right 
path. 

But  experience  has  proved  that,  even  after  learning 
that  the  unity  required  is  a  unity  the  essence  of  which 
is  in  faith,  it  is  possible  to  take  a  wrong  road  to  it.  It 
has  been  found  possible  to  replace  faith  which  works 
through  love  by  a  faith  which  works  through  logic,  and 
which,  therefore,  instead  of  making  harmony,  has  multi- 
plied divisions.  In  place  of  the  simple  faith  of  the 
Scriptures,  which  is  the  resting  of  the  heart  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  there  came  a  prodigious  effort  of  intellect, 
exhausting  itself  in  the  attempt  to  grasp  a  great  system 
of  the  universe  ;  and  the  unity  of  faith  was  supposed  to 
lie  in  absolute  identity  of  opinion  through  all  that  mighty 
range  !  These  days  are,  happily,  past,  and  we  have  come, 
or  are.  fast  coming,  back  to  the  simplicity  which  is  in 
Christ,  and  learning,  with  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  to 
look  forward  to  the  day  when  we  shall  "  all  attain  unto 
the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  hioivledQC  of  the  Son  of 
Qod,  unto  a  full-grown  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ ;  that  we  may  be  no  longer 
children,  tossed  to  and  fro,  and  carried  about  by  every 
wind  of-  doctrine  .  .  .  but  speaking  truth  in  love,  may 
grow  up  in  all  things  unto  Him  which  is  the  Head,  even 
Christ ;  from  Whom  all  the  body  fitly  framed  and  knit 
together  through  that  which  every  joint  supplieth,  accord- 
ing to  the  working  in  due  measure  of  each  several  part, 
maketh  the  increase  of  the  body  unto  the  building  up  of 
itself  in  love." 

There  are  few  things  more  hopeful  in  the  prospects  of 
the  cause  of  union  than  the  growing  disposition  among 
Christians  to  make  less  of  abstract  truth,  and  more  of 
Him  who  said,  "  I  am  the  truth  ;"  less  of  faith  as  a  thing 
in  itself,  and  more  of  it  as  a  link  which  binds  us  all  to 


UNITY    BY    THE   WAY    OF    THE    CROSS.  10 1 

Him ;  iu  a  word,  less  of  creed  and  more  of  Christ.  Oh, 
how  much  better  than  the  "one  Church,  one  creed,  one 
mode  of  baptism,"  of  the  sectary,  is  the  "  one  Lord,  one 
faith,  one  baptism,"  of  the  Apostle, — one  Lord,  on  Whom 
we  all  believe,  and  into  Whom  we  are  all  baptized  by  the 
one  Spirit  into  the  one  body ;  bowing  alike  in  trustful 
adoration  to  the  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  and  looking 
forward  in  one  hope  of  our  calling  to  the  Father's  house, 
into  whose  many  mansions  shall  gather  from  north,  south, 
east,  and  west,  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and 
people,  and  nation,  one  ransomed  Church,  one  family  and 
"  household  of  God." 

This  recognition  of  the  personal  Christ  as  the  object'f'* 
of  the  Church's  faith  is  far  more  satisfactory  than  the 
attempt  which  has  also  been  made,  in  the  interests  of 
Christian  union,  while  not  abandoning  what  may  be  called  f 
the  documentary  idea  of  unity,  to  limit  its  difficulties  by 
limiting  the  size  of  the  document  to  which  all  should 
subscribe — to  reduce,  as  we  might  say,  the  creeds  of  the 
churches  to  their  lowest  terms — to  find  some  "  least 
common  denominator  "  for  all  the  denominations,  so  that 
they  might  be  added  up  by  their  numerators  into  one 
result.  We  by  no  means  say  that  efforts  in  this  direction 
have  been  fruitless,  for  it  is  plain  that  many  of  the  divisions 
of  the  Church  have  been  due  to  the  attempt  to  include 
far  too  much  in  the  Church's  creed,  and  the  movement  in 
the  direction  of  brevity  and  simplicity  has  been  whole- 
some and  hopeful  in  the  main  ;  but  then  there  is  always 
the  fear — and  not  only  the  fear,  but  the  danger — of  re- 
ducing the  creed  too  much,  getting  it  down  to  terms  so 
low  that  it  ceases  to  be  a  Christian  creed  at  all,  and  leaves 
room  for  a  "  Christianity"  without  Christ.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  the  scriptural  idea  of  faith  as  a  living  link 
to  a  living  Saviour  is  kept  prominent,  all  that  is  essential 


I02  UNITY   BY    THE    WAY    OF   THE    CROSS. 

in  the  creed  of  the  Church  is  conserved ;  for  there  cannot 
be  this  outgoing  of  the  soul  to  Christ  without  the  most 
cordial  acceptance  of  His  teaching  about  Himself  and  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  way  of  salvation,  and 
the  whole  circle  of  saving  truth.  We  do  not  say  that 
more  extended  creeds  have  not  been  of  service,  and  are 
not  needed  still,  especially  as  a  guarantee  for  the  teaching 
in  the  Church ;  but  as  a  basis  of  Christian  fellowship  and 
fully  acknowledged  brotherhood,  we  hold  that  nothing 
more  is  necessary  than  evidence  of  unfeigned  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  "  Unum  corpus  sumus  in  Christo." 
That  is  enough  :    "  Christ  is  all  and  in  all." 

But,  so  far,  we  seem  to  be  getting  farther  and  farther 
from  a  union  that  is  manifest  to  the  world.  A  great 
ecclesiastical  organisation  is  a  visible  thing ;  uniformity, 
though  less  impressive,  is  yet  quite  easily  observed ;  even 
a  creed  is  something  that  can  be  made  visible  after  a 
fashion  by  the  use  of  the  press  ;  but  this  "  faith  in  Christ" 
withdraws  the  essential  unity  so  entirely  into  the  spiritual 
region  that  the  world  cannot  be  expected  to  follow  it 
there  and  find  it  out,  and  be  any  the  wiser  or  better  for 
it.  It  remains,  then,  to  show  how  this  unity  of  faith  in 
Christ  can  be  made  manifest  to  the  world. 

And  here  it  will  be  safe  to  go  back  to  the  Apostle 
again.  "  Neither  circumcision,"  he  says,  "  nor  uncircum- 
cision,  but  faith" — so  far  so  good,  and  what  next  ?  "  Faith 
loorlcing  through  love."  Here  we  have  the  transition  from 
the  invisible  to  the  visible.  The  faith  which  links  each 
Christian  to  Christ  is  unseen  by  men,  but  the  love  which 
is  the  result  of  it,  need  not,  cannot  in  fact,  be  concealed 
from  them,  if  it  is  there  in  force.  And  every  effort  should 
be  made  to  promote  love  among  Christians,  and  to  in- 
duce them  to  avail  themselves  of  all  means  within  their 
reach,  not  only  of  cherishing  it  in  their  hearts,  but  also 


UNITY    BY    THE    WAY    OF    THE    CROSS.  IO3 

of  expressing  it  in  their  lives.  There  has  been  progress 
in  this  direction  too,  very  marked  and  happy  progress,  in 
recent  years ;  but  there  needs  to  be  a  much  larger  de- 
velopment and  fuller  expression  of  this  Christian  affection 
before  much  impression  can  be  made  on  an  unbelieving 
world.  It  must,  in  fact,  be  so  marked  and  remarkable  as 
not  only  to  compel  attention,  but  to  oblige  those  who 
observe  it  to  ask  the  questions,  How  can  it  be  ?  Whence 
has  it  come  ?  No  one  can  say  that  this  point  has  yet 
been  reached.  The  extent  to  which  Christian  love  pre- 
vails is  not  yet  so  extraordinary  as  to  raise  any  serious 
question  as  to  its  origin ;  still  less  is  the  phenomenon 
so  startling  as  to  manifestly  call  for  a  supernatural 
cause.  It  is  a  great  thing  that  unnatural  variance  and 
bitterness  of  strife  have  in  so  many  regions  been  replaced 
by  what  may  fairly  be  called  natural  affection ;  but  our 
Christian  love  must  manifestly  transcend  the  limits  of 
natural  affection  before  we  can  expect  the  world  to  be 
convinced  that  it  is  from  above,  that  it  comes  out  of  heaven 
from  God,  and  that  He  through  Whom  it  comes  is,  -ij^so 
facto,  proved  to  be  what  He  claims  to  be — the  Sou  of  God 
and  Saviour  of  men. 

This  brings  us  to  the  point  we  have  mainly  in  view  in 
this  paper — viz.,  that  while  it  is  by  love  that  the  unity 
of  the  faith  is  to  be  manifested,  it  is  not  by  love  in  its 
ordinary  range,  but  in  the  extraordinary  range  which  be- 
longs to  the  faith  in  Christ — the  love,  tliat  is,  which  finds 
its  example  and  model  in  the  Cross.  It  is  by  the  Cross 
that  the  Divine  love  is  commended  to  us  ;  and  in  the  same 
way  must  it  be  commended  by  us  to  those  that  are  with- 
out. It  will  be  remembered  how  even  Christ  Himself, 
pure  and  holy  and  loving  as  He  was,  failed  on  any  large 
scale  to  draw  men  unto  Him,  until  the  light  of  the  Divine 
love  had  been  made,  so  to  speak,  to  Uazc  before  the  eyes 


I04  UNITY    BY    THE   WAY    OF    THE    CROSS. 

of  men  in  the  awful  sacrifice  of  tlie  Cross.  It  will  also 
be  remembered  liow  distinctly  this  was  present  to  His 
own  mind,  as  when  He  cried,  "  I,  if  I  he,  lifted  iqj  from 
the  earth,  shall  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  It  was  not  till 
Divine  love  blazed  out  in  the  Cross  that  men  were  attracted 
in  large  numbers  to  Christ ;  and  it  will  not  be  till  the  love 
of  Christ  blazes  out  in  the  same  manner  in  His  people 
that  the  world  will  be  compelled  to  recognise  their  one- 
ness with  Him  who  gave  His  life  for  men  who  were  His 
enemies. 

The  trouble  with  our  love  and  its  manifestation  hitherto 
has  been  that  while  there  has  been  quite  enough  of  senti- 
ment in  it,  there  has  been  far  too  little  sacrifice.  It  has 
not  been  conspicuously  marked  with  the  sign  of  the  cross. 
It  is  easy  to  speak  and  to  write  of  "  our  dear  brothers 
and  sisters  in  Christ;"  but  what  do  we  give  up  for  their 
sakes  ?  There  has,  happily,  been  not  a  little  sacrifice  for 
the  cause  of  Christ,  as  represented  by  the  wants  of  the 
perishing  heathen  abroad  and  at  home,  but  very  little  of 
it,  as  yet,  for  His  cause  as  represented  by  the  woes  of 
the  torn  and  bleeding  Church.  We  put  crosses  on  our 
churches  still,  and  there  is  certainly  no  place  where  the 
tender  but  awful  symbol  is  more  appropiiate ;  yet  the 
church  is  often  the  last  place  where  good  Christian  people 
think  the  cross  in  its  reality  ought  to  be.  How  many 
are  there  even  of  those  who,  as  private  Christians,  show 
not  a  little  of  the  spirit  of  their  Master,  self -forgetful, 
tenderly  considerate  of  others,  ready  to  make  sacrifices 
for  their  sakes,  who  show  none  of  it  in  their  bearing  and 
conduct  as  members  of  the  branch  of  the  Church  to  which 
they  belong !  In  putting  on  the  churchman,  they  put 
off  the  man,  become  haughty  and  exclusive,  regardless  of 
the  feelings  and  interests  of  others,  insist  always  on  what 
they  call  their  rights,  and  think  little  or  not  at  all  of 


UNITY    BY    THE    WAY    OF    THE    CROSS.  IO5 

what  is  certainly  their  duty — to  love  their  fellow  Christians 
as  Christ  has  loved  them.  They  justify  their  conduct  to 
themselves  by  the  thought  that  they  are  contending  for 
the  cause  of  Christ ;  but  they  forget  that  the  cause  of 
Christ  cannot  be  identified  with  the  interests  of  any  part 
of  His  kingdom  except  in  so  far  as  its  interests  agree 
with  the  general  interests  of  the  whole ;  and  they  forget, 
besides,  that  what  may  seem  to  them,  and  may  really  be, 
a  great  advantage  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  may  be  secured 
at  far  too  great  a  cost.  Whatever  we  are  striving  after 
must  be,  indeed,  of  overwhelming  importance,  if  it  be  not 
too  dearly  purchased  at  the  expense  of  that  unity  of  spirit 
among  Christians,  the  longing  for  which  was  the  great 
burden  of  the  prayer  which  was  in  the  Saviour's  heart 
and  on  His  lips  as  He  advanced  to  His  great  sacrifice. 
The  Church  as  a  whole,  and  all  its  individual  members, 
are  called  upon  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  good  of  the 
world ;  but  no  less  is  it  the  duty  of  the  different  parts  of 
the  Church  to  make  sacrifices  for  each  other.  Yet  how 
seldom  is  this  ever  thought  of!  Where  two  denominations 
of  Christians  are  working  in  the  common  cause  in  the 
same  place,  how  seldom  does  the  one  make  any  consider- 
able sacrifice  for  the  other's  sake  !  How  seldom  is  it  made 
conspicuous  that  Christ  is  all  and  in  all  to  the  Christians 
of  our  towns  and  villages  and  country  districts ;  that  in 
very  deed  it  is  not  so  much,  not  nearly  so  much,  a  ques- 
tion whether  this,  that,  or  the  other  enterprise  shall 
flourish,  as  whether  the  name  of  Christ  shall  be  exalted 
and  His  cause  advanced  at  whatever  cost !  "But  our 
cause  might  die,"  says  one.  So  be  it,  then,  if  thereby 
the  cause  of  Christ  be  advanced.  "  But  our  enterprise  is 
so  essential  to  the  progress  of  the  cause  ;  its  life  is  too 
valuable  to  be  sacrificed."  Very  well ;  but  was  not  the 
life  of  Christ  valuable,  too  valuable  to  be  risked  or  sacri- 


I06  UNITY    BY    THE   WAY   OF   THE    CROSS. 

ficed  ?  Yet  He  gave  it  up — gave  it  up,  indeed,  for  a 
pui'pose  wider  than  the  accomplishment  of  unity  ;  and 
yet,  as  we  have  seen,  this  prayer  for  unity  seemed  to  be 
deepest  in  His  heart  at  the  very  time.  But,  after  all, 
just  as  it  was  with  the  Master,  so  will  it  be  with  the 
servants ;  the  ultimate  issue  will  be  not  death,  but  larger, 
fuller,  riclier  life.  Christian  enterprises  are  not  likely 
to  die  by  being  carried  on  in  a  truly  Christian  spirit ; 
and  the  principle  our  Lord  so  frequently  insisted  on  is  as 
valid  for  collective  communities  of  Christians  as  for  each 
individual  member  of  them  :  "  He  that  will  save  his  life 
shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  will  lose  his  life  for  My  sake 
shall  find  it." 

The  crucifixion  of  self  in  every  form  is  what  is  needed, 
including  that  most  insidious  form  of  it  which  says  "  My 
church,"  or  even  "  Our  church,"  in  place  of  "  The  Church 
of  the  living  God,"  "  The  Kingdom  of  Christ."  We  must 
beware  of  that  subtle  form  of  selfishness  which  takes 
such  liberties  with  the  Lord's  prayer,  saying  from  the 
heart,  "Our  name,  our  kingdom,  our  will;"  while  only 
on  the  lips  are  the  very  words  the  Lord  has  taught  us, 
"  Hallowed  be  Tliy  name,  Tliy  kingdom  come,  Thy  will 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  Ah  !  it  often 
costs  a  great  deal  to  get  the  word  "Thy"  down  from 
the  lips  to  the  heart.  The  true  Christian  knows  what 
it  costs  in  private  life,  and  why  should  it  not  cost 
something  in  Church  life  ?  Shall  it  be  the  plain  duty  of 
Christians  to  take  up  the  cross  at  home,  and  in  the  street, 
and  the  market ;  and  yet  shall  they  be  at  liberty  to  lay 
it  down  and  leave  it  outside  when  they  enter  the  church 
porch,  or  sit  in  council  in  the  church  court  ?  Surely  not. 
It  is  there  especially  that  the  world  looks  for  it;  and  it 
is  for  the  want  of  it  there,  very  largely  at  least,  that  the 
world  will  not  believe  that  Christ,  in  Whose  name  churches 


UXITY    BY    THE    WAY    OF    THE    CEOSS.  10/ 

are  gathered  and  cliurcli  courts  meet,  was  sent  of  God 
(Jolin  xvii.  2  i).  It"  there  could  only  be  this  crucifixion  of 
self  through  all  the  Church — far  more  of  it  in  private  life, 
and  a  fair  share  in  church  life  too, — how  speedily  would 
our  oneness  in  Him  and  with  one  another  be  manifested  ! 
Men  would  see  everywhere  "the  marks  of  the  Lord 
Jesus ; "  every  doubting  Thomas  could  put  his  fingers 
in  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  thrust  his  hand  into  the 
wounds  in  the  side.  That  would  be  the  true  sign  of  the 
cross  ;  and  again,  with  far  deeper  meaning  and  grander 
result,  the  Church  might  inscribe  upon  her  lalarum  the 
old  device  :    eu  tovtw  vlku,  "  by  this  conquer  !  " 

Only  let  the  Church  be  ' '  lifted  up  from  the  earth  " 
as  her  Lord  was  lifted  up,  and  she  will  ''  draw  all  men 
unto  her."  Herein  is  her  true  glory,  as  it  was  the 
glory  of  her  Master  ;  a  glory  He  refers  to  in  that  very 
prayer  for  unity — "  The  glory  which  Thou  gavest  me  I 
have  given  them,  that  they  may  be  one  ;  "  a  glory  which 
He  has  just  explained  in  these  striking  and  suggestive 
words:  "For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself"  (devote 
myself  as  a  sacrifice),  "  that  they  also  may  be  devoted  in 
truth."  We  must,  not  only  as  individual  believers,  but  also 
as  members  of  the  Church,  enter  into  the  fellowship  of 
the  sufferings  of  Christ,  if  we  would  share  in  His  glory. 
We  must  be  willing  to  be  put  into  the  ground  and  die, 
if  we  would  bear  much  fruit.  The  days  for  martyrdom 
are  not  past  yet.  We  have  no  longer  to  give  our  lives 
in  the  same  absolute  way ;  we  are  not  asked  to  give  the 
whole  of  them  at  once  ;  but  we  are  asked  to  deny  our- 
selves day  by  day — to  give  up  what  may  be  dear  to  us 
as  life  itself.  There  are  large  portions  of  ourselves  that 
we  must  be  willing  even  in  these  days  to  allow  to  be  put 
into  the  ground  and  die,  if  we  would  not  abide  alone,  but 
bring  forth  much  fruit.      We  must  take  the  way  of  the 


I08  UNITY    BY   THE   WAY"    OF   THE    CEOSS. 

Cross,  which,  is  the  way  of  the  Master,  if  we  would  reach 
the  unity  for  which  He  prays. 

It  is  no  easy  way.  It  cannot  be  reached  by  speeches, 
and  resolutions,  and  expressions  of  endearment,  and 
cultivation  of  brotherly  relations,  and  so  on.  It  cannot 
be  attained  without  sacrifice.  This  love  of  ours  for  one 
another  must  be  so  lifted  up  from  the  earth  that  men  will 
see  it  is  not  of  earth,  but  heavenly  and  divine.  People 
may  turn  away  and  say,  "It  is  not  in  human  nature  to 
make  such  sacrifices."  The  answer  is — that  is  the  very 
reason  they  must  be  made.  It  is  not  human  nature  the 
world  wants  to  see  in  order  to  believe ;  it  has  quite 
enough  of  that.  It  is  divine  nature  the  world  is  waiting 
to  see.  It  insists  on  seeing  not  mere  human  affection, 
but  divine  love,  which  can  make  itself  infallibly  known 
only  by  carrying  on  its  front  the  sign  of  the  cross. 

It  comes  to  this,  then — that  what  is  most  wanted  in 
order  to  the  manifestation  of  the  unity  of  Christians  in 
their  common  Lord,  is  more,  and  more,  and  more  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Cross  throughout  the  Church.  As  it  was 
put  long  ago,  by  one  who,  next  to  the  Lord  Himself, 
knew  best  what  Christian  love  is :  "  Hereby  know  we 
love,  because  He  laid  down  His  life  for  us  ;  and  we  ought 
to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  hrctlircn."  Lord  Jesus,  who 
didst  lay  down  Thy  life  for  us,  grant  us,  and  all  Thy 
people.  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  that  He  may  teach  us  how  we 
too  must  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren !  Give 
unto  us  more  and  more  of  Thy  glory,  that  we  may  be 
one  with  Thee !  Let  the  love  wherewith  Thou  hast 
loved  us,  be  in  us,  that  the  world  may  know  as  it  looks 
at  us  and  sees  us  one  with  Thee,  that  Thou  in  whom  we 
trust  art  indeed  the  Son  of  God,  the  Sa\iour  of  the 
world  ! 


VIII. 

WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE. 

1 T  is  not  our  purpose  to  discuss  in  this  paper  the  large 
subject  of  "  Wisdom  "  iu  the  Hebrew  literature  ;  but 
only  to  call  attention  to  a  sadly  common  perversion  of 
part  of  the  noble  passage  in  the  opening  of  the  Book  of 
Proverbs — an  abuse  of  Scripture  which  has  done  and  is 
doing  incalculable  mischief.  It  has  long  been  a  common- 
place of  popular  evangelical  exposition  that  "  Wisdom  " 
in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  is  Christ.  The  ground  of  this 
belief  is  the  unquestionable  fact  that  the  greater  part  of 
the  utterances  of  "  Wisdom  "  in  the  Proverbs,  especially  in 
the  eighth  chapter,  would  come  most  appropriately  from 
the  lips  of  Christ,  and  some  of  them  are  striking  antici- 
pations of  His  gracious  invitations  and  promises.*  This 
is  just  what  we  should  expect.  Wisdom  is  one  of  the 
divine  attributes ;  and  Christ  "is  of  God  made  unto  us 
wisdom,"  as  well  as  "  righteousness  and  sanctification  and 
redemption."  We  may  surely  expect,  then,  that  up  to  a 
certain  point  the  utterances  of  Wisdom  and  of  Christ 
would  coincide ;  so  that  in  these  passages  in  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  we  should  be  able  to  find,  as  we  find  throughout 

*  There  is,  however,  a  difference  even  here.  For  example,  take  that 
favourite  text,  "  I  love  them  that  love  Me."  How  far  short  does  it  come 
of  the  grace  of  the  gospel  in  which  "God  commendeth  His  love  toward 
us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us."  The  order  of 
grace  is  not,  "  I  love  them  that  love  Me  ;  "  but,  "  We  love  Him,  who  first 
loved  us." 


1  I O     WISDOM  PEESONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE. 

the  whole  of  tlie  Old  Testament,  some  portion  of  "  the 
testimony  of  Jesus."  But  does  it  follow  that  because 
some  or  many  of  Wisdom's  utterances  may  be  correctly 
spoken  of  as  the  words  of  Christ  Himself,  therefore  all 
of  them  may  be  so  regarded  ?  To  see  how  utterly  foolish 
is  this  way  of  reasoning,  we  have  only  to  remember  how 
many  of  David's  words  not  only  coincide  with  those  of 
Christ,  but  are  actually  quoted  in  the  New  Testament  as 
if  Christ  Himself  had  uttered  them  ;  and  yet  no  one  is 
so  foolish  as  to  insist  that  all  the  words  of  David  can 
be  safely  put  into  the  mouth  of  Christ,  Suppose,  for 
example,  that  some  one  should  quote  David's  dying  curse 
upon  his  enemies  as  the  words  of  Christ,  who  would  not 
resent  it  as  a  slander  on  Him  whose  dying  word  for  His 
enemies  was,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do ; "  and  yet  it  could  be  justified  on  precisely 
the  same  principles  on  which  so  many  put  into  the  mouth 
of  Christ  the  awful  words  :  "  I  also  will  laugh  at  your 
calamity ;  I  will  mock  when  your  fear  cometli :  when 
your  fear  cometh  as  desolation,  and  destruction  cometh 
as  a  whirlwind ;  when  distress  and  anguish  cometh 
upon  you.  Then  shall  they  call  upon  me,  but  I  will  not 
answer ;  they  shall  seek  me  early,  but  they  shall  not 
find  me." 

We  have  been  moved  to  write  on  this  subject  by  a 
recent  sad  experience.  An  earnest  Christian  lady  visiting 
an  infirmary  found  an  old  sinner  in  a  very  anxious  and 
penitent  state  of  mind.  She  pointed  him  to  Christ,  and 
told  him  the  gospel  of  free  grace  and  dying  love.  He 
listened  with  deep  earnestness  and  great  interest,  and 
then  dashed  her  hopes  by  telling  her  sadly  that  the 
gospel  was  not  for  him.  Asked  why  he  said  so,  he 
turned  to  the  first  chapter  of  Proverbs  and  read  the  awful 
sentences  we  have  just  quoted.      She  tried  her  best  to 


WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE.      I  I  I 

point  him  to  other  passages  ;  but  he  could  not  get  beyond 
this  one,  which  seemed  so  utterly  to  close  the  door  of 
hope.  The  visitor  reported  the  case  to  her  minister. 
He  pointed  out  to  her  that  these  were  not  the  words  of 
Christ,  but  of  Wisdom  ;  that  if  there  were  nothing  but 
wisdom  iu  God,  there  could  be  no  hope  for  sinners  ;  but 
that  "  God  is  Love,"  that  that  love  has  found  expression 
in  the  gift  of  His  Son  Christ  Jesus,  and  that,  though 
sinners  could  not  find  salvation  in  any  words  of  Wisdom, 
they  could  find  all  they  need  in  Christ,  Who  can  and  will 
"  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  Him." 
She  went  back  joyfully  with  her  message,  delivered  it  to 
the  sick  man,  with  the  result  that  his  face  lighted  up, 
and  he  seemed  about  to  find  what  he  was  seeking,  when 
a  man  lying  on  the  next  bed  interposed.  He  had  been 
a  local  preachei',  and  had  no  doubt  often  preached  fiery 
discourses  on  these  awful  words.  He  told  the  poor  old 
man  that  the  visitor  was  all  wrong,  that  all  who  under- 
stood their  Bibles  knew  that  "  Wisdom  "  was  Christ,  and 
in  proof  of  it  triumphantly  pointed  to  some  of  those 
sayings  in  the  eighth  chapter  which  read  like  words  of 
Christ.  The  result  was  that  the  old  despair  came  back 
into  the  poor  man's  face,  and  the  visitor  surrendered  too, 
and  to  this  day  feels  constrained  to  treat  this  passage  as 
an  inspired  declaration  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  can — 
and  does — laugh  at  calamity  and  mock  at  prayer ! 

This  is  no  solitary  case.  It  is  a  familiar  experience, 
especially  in  dealing  with  the  comparatively  uneducated. 
And, besides  the  injury  done  to  anxious  souls,  no  one  can 
tell  how  many  have  been  driven  into  infidelity  by  the 
unwarrantable  liberty  which  so  many  good  people  allow 
themselves  with  this  passage  of  Scripture  when  they  take 
out  the  word  "  Wisdom  "  and  put  in  the  word  "  Christ " 
or  the  word  "  God."      Is  it  any  wonder  that  those  who 


I  I  2     WISDOM  PEESONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCAENATE. 

know  not  the  truth  should  say  :  "  Better  no  God  at  all 
than  one  who  would  laugh  at  the  calamities  of  His 
children,  and  mock  them  when  in  agony  they  pray  to 
Him  "  ? 

It  does  seem,  then,  of  the  utmost  importance  that  this 
passage  should  be  expounded ;  and  it  is  in  the  hope  of 
inducing  the  readers  of  this  paper  to  do  what  they  can  to 
dispel  the  popular  misunderstanding  on  the  subject  that 
the  attempt  will  be  made  to  show,  in  as  clear  a  light  as 
possible,  wherein  the  words  of  Wisdom  coincide  with  those 
of  Christ,  and  wherein  they  do  not. 

As  we  said  at  the  beginning.  Wisdom  is  one  of  the 
attributes  of  God,  and  therefore  the  words  of  Wisdom 
must  be,  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  expression  of  the 
Divine  mind.  We  may  say  that  Wisdom  expresses  the 
mind  of  God  in  creation,  in  providence,  in  the  whole 
realm  of  law.  And  in  this  realm,  as  well  as  in  the 
realm  of  grace,  the  Son  of  God  has  His  place  as  the 
Revealer.  As  St.  John  sets  forth  in  the  prologue  to  his 
gospel.  He  is  the  Xoyog,  without  Whom  nothing  was 
made  that  was  made  ;  and  as  St.  Paul  tells  us,  "  He  is 
before  all  things,  and  by  Him  all  things  consist "  (Col.  i. 
17).  Closely  parallel  with  this  we  have  the  remarkable 
passage  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  Proverbs,  commencing 
"  The  Lord  possessed  me  in  the  beginning  of  His  way, 
before  His  works  of  old  "  (see  the  whole  passage,  verses 
22—31).  We  may  then  I'egard  Christ  and  Wisdom  as 
identical  throughout  the  realm  of  natural  laio ;  so  that 
no  error  would  result  from  the  substitution  of  the  one 
for  the  other  within  that  range  of  truth :  but  when  we 
leave  the  realm  of  law  and  enter  that  of  grace,  it  is 
entirely  different ;  then  it  may  not  only  be  injurious  but 
fatal  to  take  the  utterances  of  mere  Wisdom,  and  put 
them  into  the  mouth  of  Christ.     If  Christ  had  been  only 


WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE.      II  3 

Wisdom,  He  could  not  have  heard  the  sinner's  prayer ; 
but  He  is  also  ' '  righteousness  and  sanctification  and  re- 
demption ;  "  and  that  makes  all  the  difference,  for  now 
that  He  has  made  an  atonement  for  our  sins  and  opened 
up  the  way  of  life,  He  can  speak  not  only  in  the  name 
of  Wisdom,  but  of  pardoning  mercy  and  redeeming  grace  ; 
and  accordingly,  far  from  laughing  at  calamity  and  scorn- 
ing the  penitent's  prayer,  which  Wisdom,  alone,  must  do, 
He  can  and  will  and  does  "  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that 
come  unto  God  by  Him." 

Having  thus  considered  the  extent  to  which  we  may 
expect  to  find  "  the  testimony  of  Jesus  "  in  the  words  of 
Wisdom,  let  us  now  test  the  principles  we  have  laid  down 
by  an  examination  of  the  passage.  The  paragraph  begins 
with  the  bold  and  striking  pei^sonification  :  "  Wisdom 
crieth  without ;  she  uttereth  her  voice  in  the  streets ; 
she  crieth  in  the  chief  places  of  concourse,  in  the  opening 
of  the  gates ;  in  the  city  she  uttereth  her  words,  saying  " 
— and  then  follows  the  passage  with  which  we  have 
mainly  to  do.  Let  us  then  listen  to  Wisdom's  cry,  and 
observe  how  truthfully  and  powerfully  it  is  translated 
into  the  lang-nage  of  men.  We  shall  see  its  truth  to 
nature  better,  if  we  first  look  back  a  little.  She  begins 
not  with  a  cry  but  with  tender  words  of  counsel  and  of 
promise  (vers.  8,  9)  :  "  My  son,  hear  the  instruction  of 
thy  father,  and  forsake  not  the  law  of  thy  mother  ;  for 
they  shall  be  an  ornament  of  grace  unto  thy  head,  and 
chains  about  thy  neck."  These  are  the  tender  and  kiudly 
words  of  counsel  in  which  she  addresses  the  young  man 
setting  out  in  life.  Following  this  are  tender  and  yet 
solemn  words  of  warning  against  the  tempter  whom  every 
one  must  meet  (ver.  10) :  "  My  son,  if  sinners  entice  thee, 
consent  thou  not,"  and  so  on.  But  now  time  passes  on, 
and  Wisdom's  'proUgi  begins  to  go  astray,  to  forget  the 

H 


I  1 4     WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE. 

instruction  of  tlie  father  and  the  loving  law  of  the  moth.er, 
and  so  now  she  lifts  up  her  voice  and  cries,  entreating 
the  wanderer  to  turn  before  it  is  too  late  (vers,  22,  23). 

Time  passes  on,  and  the  warning  cry  has  been  as  little 
heeded  as  had  been  the  tender  voice  of  Wisdom  at  the 
first.  The  son,  instead  of  being  prudent,  has  been  rash  ; 
he  has  been  not  economical,  but  extravagant ;  not  tem- 
perate, but  dissipated ;  and  so  he  has  gone  on  till  his  last 
opportunity  has  been  thrown  away,  his  patrimony  squan- 
dered, his  health  gone,  his  last  friend  lost.  Then  once 
more  his  early  monitor  appears.  The  prodigal  remem- 
bers the  tender  words  of  counsel  and  of  promise,  he 
remembers  the  solemn  and  kindly  warnings  against  evil 
ways.  He  remembers  how,  when  he  was  just  beginning 
to  go  astray,  before  he  had  become  hopelessly  entangled 
in  evil,  Wisdom  lifted  up  her  voice  and  cried.  For  a 
long  time  his  old  counsellor  has  not  been  present  to  his 
mind  at  all.  He  has  been  hurrying  on  in  courses  of  evil ; 
but  now  his  very  wretchedness  forces  him  to  stop  and 
think.  And,  again,  there  stands  Wisdom  before  him. 
How  does  she  address  him  now  ?  Does  she  speak  to 
him  in  soothing  tones  ?  Does  she  promise  to  restore 
him  his  money,  or  his  health,  or  his  friends  ?  Alas,  no  ; 
she  cannot.  All  she  can  say  is :  "I  told  you  it  would 
be  so.  I  warned  you  what  would  be  the  end  ;  and  now  the 
end  has  come.  You  must  eat  the  fruit  of  your  own  ways, 
and  be  filled  with  your  own  devices."  That  is  positively 
all  that  Wisdom  can  say ;  and  there  is  no  tenderness  in 
her  tone.  She  seems  to  mock  him  rather.  She  seems 
to  laugh  at  his  calamity.  It  is  in  fact  the  old  story  of 
Wisdom  come  back  as  a  spectre  of  Remorse,  tossing  her 
snaky  head,  shaking  her  bony  fingers,  flashing  her  scorn- 
ful eyes,  and  muttering :  "  Ye  set  at  nought  all  my 
counsel,   and   would  none   of   my   reproof:    I   also  will 


WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE.      I  I  5 

laugli  at  your  calamity ;  I  will  mock  wlien  your  fear 
cometli ;  when  your  fear  cometli  as  desolation,  and  your 
destruction  cometh  as  a  whirlwind ;  when  distress  and 
anguish  cometh  upon  you." 

Is  it  of  any  use  to  call  upon  Wisdom  now  ?  Had  she 
been  invoked  in  time,  she  would  have  responded  as  she 
always  does  to  those  who  seek  her  early  in  life.  But  will 
she  respond,  can  she  respond,  now  that  life's  opportunity 
is  used  up,  and  its  prospects  utterly  blighted  ?  Alas,  no. 
She  can  only  upbraid  ;  she  cannot  help.  They  may  call 
upon  her  now,  but  she  will  not,  for  she  cannot,  answer ; 
they  may  seek  her  now,  both  early  and  late,  but  they 
cannot  find  her.  There  is  no  place  of  repentance,  however 
carefully  they  seek  it  with  tears.  Such  is  the  voice  of 
Wisdom  in  the  end  to  those  who  have  despised  her  counsel 
in  the  beginning.  And  is  not  the  whole  representation 
true  to  nature  ?  Is  it  not  patent  to  every  intelligent 
observer  of  men  and  things  ?  Yes,  it  is  perfectly  true  that 
"  Wisdom  crieth  without,  she  uttereth  her  voice  in  the 
streets,"  and  says  these  very  things  so  loudly  that  no 
listening  ear  can  fail  to  hear  them.  It  is  no  matter  of 
deep  philosophy.  It  is  no  ecclesiastical  or  theological 
dogma.  It  belongs  to  the  proverhs,  the  proverbs  of  the 
streets.  One  does  not  need  to  go  to  church  to  learn 
these  commonplaces  of  universal  common  sense.  The 
merit  of  Solomon  in  this  chapter  is  not  in  telling  us  some- 
thing we  should  not  otherwise  have  known,  but  in  putting 
what  we  already  know  in  a  very  striking  form.  The 
object  of  the  passage  is  to  bring  a  strong  pressure  to  bear, 
specially  upon  the  young,  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  Wisdom 
while  yet  her  tones  are  tender  and  full  of  promise,  before 
the  awful  time  come  when  the  voice  of  grave  and  kindly 
monition  shall  have  been  altered  into  tones  of  bitter 
mockery  and  scorn.      We  question  whether  in  all  literature 


I  1 6     WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE. 

there  can  be  found  any  more  vivid  and  alarming  descrip- 
tion of  the  terror  and  despair  of  a  remorseful  conscience, 
as  it  looks  back  and  recalls,  when  too  late,  the  neglected 
counsels  alike  of  earthly  and  of  heavenly  wisdom. 

So  far  Wisdom  ;  and  if  it  were  only  with  her  that 
sinners  had  to  do,  it  would  go  hard  not  only  with  the 
profligate  and  openly  vicious,  but  with  the  most  respect- 
able. But  He  with  whom  we  have  to  do  is  not  known 
as  Wisdom.  He  is  wise  indeed ;  and  all  wisdom  is  from 
Him.  But  there  is  that  in  Him  which  is  higher  than 
Wisdom.  "  God  is  Love."  Wisdom  is  the  expression  of 
His  will  in  the  realm  of  law ;  but  love  is  the  expression 
of  Himself,  From  His  works  in  creation  and  in  provi- 
dence we  can  get  glimpses  of  His  attributes ;  but  when 
we  wish  to  know  Him  we  must  look  into  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  not  only  wisdom  personified  but  love  incar- 
nate, and  as  such  "  the  image  of  the  invisible  God  " — and 
His  word  is,  "  Him  that  cometh  unto  me  I  will  in  no  wise 
cast  out."  True  indeed  He  is  too  wise  to  receive  sinners 
i'nto  favour  without  genuine  repentance.  He  could  say, 
and  often  did  say,  the  severest  things  in  condemnation  of 
those  who  hardened  their  hearts  against  God.  But  He 
never  laughed  at  calamity,*  and  never  refused  to  hear 
those  who  called  upon  Him. 

The  love  of  God  is  not  a  lawless  love.      It  is  not  at 

*  Those  who  are  anxious  to  make  out  that  God  laughs  at  calamity  some- 
times refer  to  Ps.  ii.  4  and  Ps.  xxxvii.  13,  as  if  they  expressed  the  same 
idea  as  in  the  passage  before  us.  This  is  one  of  many  instances  of  the 
danger  of  mistaking  mere  verbal  coincidences  for  real  parallels.  The 
laughing  in  the  2nd  Psalm  is  not  at  calamity,  but  at  the  feeble  efforts  of 
wicked  men  to  frustrate  the  Divine  purposes.  The  kings  and  rulers  who 
are  laughed  at  are  not  in  calamity,  but  in  the  heyday  of  their  power,  and 
rejoicing  in  the  supposed  success  of  their  rebellion.  So,  too,  in  the  37th 
Psalm  the  Lord  is  represented  as  laughing,' neither  at  the  calamities,  nor 
at  the  prayers,  but  at  the  plots  of  the  wicked — manifestly  a  totally  different 
conception. 


WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE.      I  I  7 

variance  with  Wisdom.  The  law  which  ordains  that  the 
sinner  must  eat  of  the  fruit  of  his  own  way  and  be  filled 
with  his  own  devices,  cannot  be  set  aside  by  the  mere 
emotion  of  compassion.  Hence  it  was  necessary  in  order 
to  redeem  man  from  the  condemnation  of  sin  that  the 
Holy  One  of  God  should  suffer.  Hence,  too,  it  is  that, 
though  by  the  suffering  and  death  of  Christ  believers  in 
Him  are  set  free  from  the  condemnation  of  sin,  yet  the 
natural  consequences  of  the  transgression  of  Wisdom's  laws 
are  not  abolished.  If  health  has  been  wasted,  it  will  not 
be  miraculously  restored.  If  money  has  been  squandered, 
there  must  be  suffering  from  the  want  of  it.  If  friends 
have  been  alienated,  they  must  be  won  back  by  the 
slow  process  which  the  laws  of  Wisdom  in  such  cases 
demand.  If  character  has  been  forfeited  by  dishonesty  or 
impurity,  it  may  never  be  redeemed  on  this  side  the  grave. 
The  laws  of  Wisdom  are  not  repealed  or  set  aside,  or  set 
at  nought ;  they  remain  in  force.  But  such  has  been  the 
ingenuity,  so  to  speak,  of  the  Divine  love,  that  without 
infringing  on  the  proper  domain  of  Wisdom  expressing 
itself  in  law,  the  way  has  been  opened  up  for  the  full 
pardon  and  ultimate  restoration  even  of  those  who  have 
wandered  farthest  and  sinned  the  most.  And  accordingly, 
a  passage  like  this  awful  one  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Book  of  Proverbs,  instead  of  obscuring  the  Divine  love  in 
the  smallest  degree,  or  interposing  so  much  as  a  thread 
between  the  sinner  and  his  Saviour,  rather  serves  as  a 
dark  background  on  which  to  set  forth  the  radiant  form 
of  the  Saviour  of  mankind — 

"  Whose  love  appears  more  orient  and  more  bright, 
Having  a  foil  whereon  to  show  its  light." 

The  foil  is  inexorable  law,  the  god  of  modern  infidelity, 
who  shows  no  mercy.     Force  and  law  never  show  mercy. 


I  1  8     WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE, 

They  always  laugh  at  calamity,  and  mock  when  fear 
Cometh.  When  fear  cometh  as  desolation,  and  destruc- 
tion Cometh  as  a  whirlwind,  men  may  call  aloud  to  the 
gods  of  unbelieving  science,  but  they  will  not  answer. 
And  that  wisdom  which  deals  only  with  such  matters  as 
law  and  force,  and  rejects  the  revelation  of  divine  love, 
has  no  gospel  for  humanity.  All  it  does  is  to  spread  a 
dark  background  which  the  more  vividly  sets  off  by  con- 
trast the  glad  tidings  of  a  Father  God,  who  "  forgiveth 
all  thine  iniquities  ;  who  healeth  all  thy  diseases  ;  who 
redeemeth  thy  life  from  destruction  ;  who  crowneth  thee 
with  loving  kindness  and  tender  mercies." 

Experience  has  convinced  the  writer  that  it  would  be 
too  much  to  expect  all  those  who  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  putting  these  awful  words  into  the  mouth  of  our 
Father  in  Heaven  or  of  His  Son  Christ  Jesus,  to  acknow- 
ledge that  they  have  been  wrong.  But  surely  it  should 
not  be  too  much  to  ask  even  those  who  are  most  wedded 
to  traditional  interpretation  and  inferences  to  honour 
the  Scriptures  so  far  as  to  quote  them  correctly.  If 
they  will  cling  to  the  idea  that  when  the  Bible  says 
"  Wisdom "  it  means  to  say  God  or  Christ,  then  why 
should  they  change  the  word  ?  If  it  so  obviously 
means  God  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  it  will  have  the  same 
meaning  when  it  is  quoted.  Let  them  tell  the  people 
that  "  Wisdom  "  says  these  things  ;  but  if  they  take  away 
the  Bible  word  and  put  in  another,  are  they  not  taking 
the  name  of  the  Lord  their  God  in  vain  ?  For  either 
"  Wisdom  "  in  the  passage  quoted  means  God,  or  it  does 
not.  If  it  does,  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  the  substitu- 
tion ;  and  surely  it  is  a  vain  thing  to  suppose  that  their 
word  is  better  than  the  word  in  the  Bible.  If  it  does 
not,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  does,  then  in  a  far 
more  serious  sense  it  is  taking  God's  name  in  vain  to 


WISDOM  PERSONIFIED  AND  LOVE  INCARNATE.      I  1 9 

thrust  it  in.  It  is  not  as  if  there  were  not  passages 
enough  to  set  forth  the  wrath  of  God  against  sin.  No 
man  who  accepts  the  Scriptures  as  from  God  can  honestly 
deny  that  there  is  a  terrible  doom  for  the  impenitent 
sinner.  But  it  is  just  as  plain  that  God  "  delighteth  in 
mercy,"  and  "  doth  not  afflict  willingly,"  that  there  is 
infinite  sorrow  in  His  heart  at  the  thought  of  the  cala- 
mities of  the  wicked,  represented  throughout  the  Old 
Testament  by  the  most  pathetic  appeals,  and  expressed 
with  infinite  pathos  in  the  tears  of  Jesus  over  doomed 
Jerusalem.  Let  the  vengeance  of  God  be  by  all  means 
proclaimed  against  impenitence ;  but  let  it  be  distinctly 
known  that  it  is  the  vengeance,  not  of  cruel  exultation, 
but  of  Divine  sorrow  and  love. 


IX. 


THE  INOAENATE  WORD  AND  THE 
INDWELLING  SPIRIT. 

T^HE  God  Whom  we  worsliip  is  represented  to  us  in 
Scripture,  not  only  as  God  the  Supreme,  but  as 
Father,  as  Son,  and  as  Spirit.  The  word  "  Trinity," 
though  it  is  never  used  in  the  Bible,  seems  justified  by 
this  threefold  representation.  Great  difficulties  are  en- 
countered when  the  attempt  is  made  to  imagine  how  the 
one  God  can  exist  as  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit ;  but  no 
greater  than  reason  would  lead  us  to  expect,  for  "  who 
can  by  searching  find  out  God  ?"  There  are  unfathom- 
able mysteries  in  the  complexity  of  our  own  constitution, 
and  philosophers  who  have  devoted  the  closest  attention 
to  the  study  of  man,  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  is  a  mysterious  trinity  in  his  nature,  of  body,  soul, 
and  spirit.  This  is  not  suggested  as  in  any  sense  parallel 
to  the  Trinity  in  the  Divine  nature,  but  it  may  surely 
prompt  the  question — If  we  find  that  which  is  unfathom- 
able in  our  own  nature,  why  should  it  perplex  us  to 
encounter  that  which  is  utterly  incomprehensible  by  us 
in  the  nature  of  God  ?  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  in- 
deed, is  sometimes  put  in  such  a  way  as  to  involve  a 
contradiction  ;  never  in  Scripture,  however ;  only  in  the 
vain  attempts  of  men  to  put  the  incomprehensible 
into  logical  or  arithmetical  forms  of  expression  of  their 
own  devising.     Many  are  sorely  perplexed,  and  some  are 


THE    INCARNATE   WORD,   ETC.  12  1 

decisively  repelled,  by  the  apparent  irrationality  involved 
in  the  very  word  "  Trinity,"  especially  when  it  is  put  in 
the  arithmetical  form,  "  Three  in  One,  and  One  in  Three  ;" 
but  it  is  only  necessary  to  bear  in  mind,  first  that  the 
Bible  is  not  responsible  for  that  way  of  putting  it,  and 
next,  that  while  God  may  be  said  to  be  Three  as  well  as 
One,  it  is  certainly  never  meant  that  He  is  or  can  be 
Three  and  One  in  the  same  sense.  The  doctrine  cannot 
thus  or  in  any  way  be  relieved  of  incomprehensibility  ; 
but  it  is  certainly  relieved  entirely  of  contradiction  and 
absurdity. 

The  Father  is  preseted  to  our  thoughts  as  God  in- 
visible, inaccessible  ;  the  Son,  as  God  manifest ;  the  Spirit, 
as  God  working.  Some,  beguiled  by  the  apparent  sim- 
plicity of  the  conception,  have  maintained  that  these  are 
three  successive  revelations ;  that  God  revealed  Himself 
as  Father  under  the  old  covenant,  as  Son  in  the  life  of 
Christ,  as  Spirit  on  and  after  Pentecost.  But  this  theory 
is  at  once  set  aside  by  the  fact  that  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit  are  found  all  through  the  Old  Testament  as  well 
as  the  New.  The  Apostle  John,  looking  back  over  the 
old  dispensation,  says :  "  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any 
time,  the  only-begotten  Son  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Father,  He  hath  declared  Him,"  The  Son  was  God 
manifest  from  the  beginning.  "  In  the  beginning  was 
the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word 
was  God."  From  the  beginning,  too,  the  Spirit  is  spoken 
of  as  exercising  His  divine  energy,  for  do  we  not  read  at 
the  very  opening  of  the  Bible,  how  "  the  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters"?  And  there  are 
many  passages  in  both  Testaments,  in  which  both  creation 
and  providence  are  attributed  to  the  Son  and  to  the 
Spirit ;  to  the  Son  when  they  are  regarded  as  manifes- 
tations of  God,  to  the  Spirit  when  they  are  regarded  as 


122  THE    INCARNATE    WOED    AKD 

works  done  by  the  divine  energy.  And  not  only  are  the 
Son  and  the  Spirit  spoken  of  as  engaged  in  creation  and 
providence  from  the  beginning,  but  in  the  work  of  salva- 
tion as  well.  The  declaration  of  St.  John  above  quoted 
is  a  proof  of  this,  and  it  is  fully  confirmed  by  a  careful 
study  of  the  Covenant  name  Jehovah,  and  of  those  very 
numerous  passages  in  which  the  Angel  of  Jehovah  or  the 
Angel  of  the  Covenant  is  spoken  of  in  such  a  way  as  to 
identify  Him  with  the  Word,  Who  in  the  fulness  of  the 
time  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  men.  For  proof  of 
it  in  relation  to  the  Spirit,  reference  may  be  made  to  such 
passages  as  these :  "  ]\Iy  Spirit  shall  not  always  strive 
with  men"  (Gen.  vi.  3)  ;  the  prayer  of  David,  "  Cast  me 
not  away  from  Thy  presence  ;  and  take  not  Thy  Holy 
Spirit  from  me  ;  "  the  message  to  Zerubbabel,  "  Not  by 
might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord." 
It  is  plain  then  that  the  theologians  have  rightly  inter- 
preted Scripture,  when  they  have  spoken  of  Father,  Son, 
and  Spirit  as  alike  eternal,  without  beginning  and  without 
end. 

But,  though  the  Word  is  eternal,  the  Incarnate  Word 
had  a  beginning ;  and  though  the  Spirit  is  eternal,  the 
Indwelling  Spirit  dates  from  Pentecost.  When  Jesus 
was  born  in  Bethlehem,  the  Eternal  Word  was  made  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us ;  when  the  120  were  all  with  one 
accord  in  one  place  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  Eternal 
Spirit  came  as  the  Spirit  of  the  Son  to  dwell  in  human 
hearts.  The  two  events,  the  two  great  Advents,  are  most 
closely  related  ;  and  it  is  of  great  practical  importance  to 
keep  the  relation  between  them  clear  and  full  in  our 
minds.  The  Incarnation  prepared  the  way  for  the  In- 
dwelling ;  the  Indwelling  crowned  the  Incarnation  by 
rendering  it  practically  universal  and  perpetual. 

The  connection  between  the  one  and  the  other  is  most 


THE    INDWELLING    SPIRIT.  I  23 

clearly  and  beautifully  brouglit  out  in  our  Lord's  discourse 
to  His  disciples  in  the  upper  chamber.  We  may  say  that 
the  key  to  the  right  view  of  the  subject  is  to  be  found 
in  the  great  word  "  Comforter,"  which  is  used  by  our 
Lord  so  frequently  and  so  significantly  in  giving  the  pro- 
mise of  the  Spirit.  It  is  a  translation  of  the  Greek  word 
"  paraclete,"  meaning  literally  one  summoned  to  our  side,  a 
word  frequently  employed  in  ordinary  Greek  to  denote 
an  advocate  in  a  court  of  law,  and  also  in  a  more  general 
sense,  a  counsellor,  keeper,  strengthener,  comforter.  The 
delightful  old  English  word  Comforter  has  been  wisely 
retained  by  the  revisers,  with  such  marginal  alternatives 
as  to  keep  before  the  mind  the  fact  that  the  word  in  the 
original  is  much  wider  in  meaning  than  ours,  and  that  the 
idea  of  Advocate  especially  (by  which  the  same  word  is  tran- 
slated in  I  John  ii.  I,  and  which  is  really  the  Latin  equi- 
valent of  the  Greek  "  paraclete  ")  must  not  be  left  out. 

Is  it  not  to  be  regretted  that  this  title,  which  seems 
intended,  by  the  way  it  is  used  in  Scripture,  to  connect  as 
closely  as  possible  the  Incarnate  Word  and  the  Indwell- 
ing Spirit,  should  have  been  so  restricted  in  its  use  among 
Christians  as  almost  to  lose  the  connection  ?  "  The  Com- 
forter," "  the  Paraclete,"  is  always  understood  of  the  Spirit ; 
and  it  seems  rarely  to  suggest  itself  to  the  minds  of  Chris- 
tians that  the  Lord  "  Jesus  "  has  equal  claim  to  the  title. 
Observe  how  the  Saviour  expresses  Himself.  The  first 
form  in  which  He  puts  the  promise  is  this :  "  I  will  pray 
the  Father  and  He  shall  give  you  another  Comforter," 
thus  plainly  intimating  that  He  Himself  was  the  one 
Comforter  and  the  Holy  Spirit  the  other.  And  that  the 
title  still  belongs  to  Him,  now  that  He  has  gone  to  the 
Father,  is  evident  from  the  use  of  it  as  applied  to  Him  in 
the  Epistle  of  St.  John.  Let  us  then  remembei-,  not  only 
that  the  word  "  Comforter  "  is  one  of  the  titles  of  the 


124  THE   INCARNATE   WORD   AND 

Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  that  it  is  His  first,  that  He  was 
the  Comforter  of  His  disciples  while  He  was  with  them  on 
earth,  and  that,  in  order  to  console  them  in  prospect  of 
His  leaving  them,  He  promised  to  send  them  "  another 
Comforter,"  Clearly,  then,  the  idea  of  the  word  "  Com- 
forter," which  is  so  pointedly  used  by  our  Lord  to  express 
the  relation  the  Holy  Spirit  would  thereafter  sustain  to 
His  people,  is  to  be  found  in  the  relation  of  Christ  to  His 
disciples — that  close,  tender,  sympathetic,  familiar,  endear- 
ing relation  which  He  sustained  to  them  when  He  was 
on  earth.  This  was  manifestly  quite  different  from  any- 
thing that  Abraham,  or  Moses,  or  David,  or  Isaiah,  or 
any  of  the  Old  Testament  saints  ever  experienced,  God 
was  a  helper  to  them,  a  counsellor,  a  friend,  a  comforter 
too,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  English  word  ;  but  He 
did  not  stand  to  them  in  that  very  familiar,  endearing, 
and  brotherly  relation  which  our  Lord  held  to  His  dis- 
ciples, and  in  virtue  of  which  He  called  Himself  their 
"  Paraclete." 

All  this  sets  in  a  clear  light  what  has  brought  difficulty 
and  perplexity  to  many,  the  constant  reference  to  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit  at  Pentecost  as  something  new.  It  is  not 
simply  spoken  of  as  a  larger  measure  of  what  had  been 
enjoyed  before,  which  is  all  that  many  interpreters  make 
of  it,  but  as  something  quite  different  from  the  previous 
visitations  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  spoken  of  as  an  advent, 
just  as  definitely  as  the  advent  of  the  Son  of  God  into 
the  world  is  spoken  of;  and  the  two  advents  are  to  be 
regarded  in  precisely  the  same  light.  When  the  Word 
was  made  flesh,  it  was  not  simply  another  added  to  the 
many  manifestations  of  God  which  the  saints  of  old  had 
enjoyed ;  it  was  something  entirely  new.  The  newness, 
however,  did  not  consist  in  the  coming  of  a  new  Person, 
for  it  was  the  Son  of  God  Who,  as  the  Angel  of  the 


THE    INDWELLING    SPIRIT.  I  25 

Covenant,  had  appeared  to  the  Patriarchs,  to  Moses,  and 
to  the  Prophets.  It  was  not  then  the  mere  coming  which 
was  the  new  thing,  but  the  coming  in  the  flesb,  the 
coming  as  a  Brother,  the  coming  as  a  Comforter,  one 
summoned  to  our  side,  to  be  always  ready  to  guide  and 
comfort,  and  help  in  every  time  of  need.  But  now  the 
question  comes,  How  long  is  this  relation  of  "  Comforter" 
to  continue  ?  Only  for  a  few  years  ?  Must  the  far  off 
relations  of  the  old  dispensation  be  brought  back  again  ? 
When  the  Lord  Jesus  returns  to  His  Father,  shall  His 
disciples  no  longer  know  Him  as  their  Brother,  their 
familiar  sympathising  Friend,  their  Comforter  ?  The 
Saviour's  promise  proves  that  there  are  better  things  in 
store.  It  is  as  if  He  said,  "  I,  your  Comforter,  must  go, 
but  another  Comforter  will  come,  one  as  tender,  as  sym- 
pathetic, as  condescending,  as  brotherly,  as  truly  a  Com- 
forter as  I  have  been,  and  one,  too,  who  will  not  leave  you 
in  a  short  time  as  I  must  do,  but  who  will  abide  with 
you  for  ever.  And  Who  is  this  Comforter  to  be  ?  The 
Holy  Spirit — He  who  has  often  visited  the  children  of 
God  from  the  beginning,  even  as  I  visited  them  before  I 
came  in  the  form  of  a  Brother,  but  who  will  no  longer 
come  as  He  came  before,  a  heavenly  visitor,  to  gladden 
you  for  a  time,  but  as  a  Comforter,  to  abide  with  you 
for  ever." 

What  we  have  learned  by  an  examination  of  the  first 
form  of  the  promise,  is  still  further  confirmed  by  the  way 
in  which  it  is  put  the  next  time  that  the  "Comforter" 
is  mentioned.  "  These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you, 
while  yet  abiding  with  you.  But  the  Comforter,  even 
the  Holy  Spirit,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  My  name, 
He  shall  teach  you  all  things."  He  Who  came  before 
as  the  Spirit  of  God  is  now  to  come  as  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  Whose  human  heart  has  beat  like  ours,  Whose 


126  THE    INCARNATE   WORD    AND 

eyes  have  shed  the  bitter  tear,  Whose  feet  have  trod  the 
dusty  highway,  Whose  arms  have  been  outstretched  to 
heal  the  leper  and  to  raise  the  dead,  Who  took  little  chil- 
dren in  His  bosom,  Who  with  the  tender  tones  of  His 
human  voice  called  all  the  weary  to  come  to  Him  for 
rest,  Who  hung  upon  the  accursed  tree  and  lay  in  the 
lonely  grave  for  love  of  lost  sinners  of  mankind.  His 
coming  is  to  be,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself;  and  accordingly  He  again 
and  again  puts  the  same  promise  in  that  simple  way : 
"  I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless,  /  will  come  to 
you."      (See  No.  V.  p.  83.) 

From  this  point  of  view  we  can  readily  understand 
why  the  "  other  Comforter  "  could  not  come  till  the  Lord 
Jesus  had  gone  to  His  Father.  It  was  necessary  that 
the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  flesh  should  be  perfected 
before  the  Spirit  could  fulfil  the  promise,  "  He  shall  take 
of  Mine  and  shall  show  it  unto  you."  The  death  of  Christ, 
His  burial.  His  resurrection,  His  ascension.  His  interces- 
sion, were  all  parts  of  that  trutli  which  the  Spirit  was  to 
use  as  His  rod  and  staff"  for  His  people's  comfort,  and  He 
must  wait  till  all  things  are  ready.  Still  more,  it  was 
only  on  the  ground  of  the  finished  and  accepted  work  of 
the  first  Comforter  that  the  second  could  come  at  all.  It 
is  no  light  thing  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Living  God,  Who 
"is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  evil,"  should  enter  into 
such  familiar  relations  with  the  sons  of  men  ;  and,  before 
it  could  be,  it  was  necessary  that  atonement  should  be 
made  and  accepted — an  atonement  on  the  ground  of  which 
He  would  be  entitled  to  ask  the  bestowment  of  the  gift. 
"  /  will  pray  the  Father"  He  says,  and  He  will  send  you 
the  Comforter.  But  after  all  things  had  been  accom- 
plished ;  after  the  atonement  which  had  been  made  on 
earth  was  accepted  in  heaven  ;   after   "  God  manifest  in 


THE    INDWELLING    SPIFJT.  12/ 

tlie  flesh"  had  been  "justified  in  the  Spirit;"  after  He 
had  "  by  Himself  purged  our  sins,"  and  "  sat  down  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high  ;  "  then  the  great  pro- 
mise was  fulfilled,  then  the  Spirit  of  the  Living  God  came 
down  to  earth  as  He  had  never  come  before,  came  into 
relations  with  human  hearts  such  as  Eden  itself  had  never 
witnessed,  into  relations  as  close,  as  tender,  as  brotherly 
as  those  which  the  Blessed  Lord  had  held  to  the  nearest 
and  dearest  of  His  disciples,  caught  up  the  features  of  that 
face  which  death  had  covered  from  His  dear  ones'  eyes, 
to  flash  them  in  upon  the  souls  of  true  believers  with  a 
steady  light  that  never  should  be  quenched — took  up 
those  tender  tones  which  had  passed  so  quickly  into 
silence,  to  make  them  thrill  for  ever  in  His  people's 
hearts — took  these  seeds  of  divine  truth  which  the  great 
sower  had  scattered  around  Him,  to  work  them  out  to 
leaf  and  flower  and  fruit  in  human  Learts — took  that 
peerless,  perfect  Human  Life,  to  set  it  all  as  if  trans- 
figured, bathed  in  heavenly  lusti'e  before  the  admiring 
eyes  of  those  who  had  wondered  what  He  meant  when  He 
said  to  them,  "  A  little  while  and  ye  shall  not  see  Me  ; 
and  again  a  little  while  and  ye  shall  see  Me,  because  I  go 
to  My  Father."  In  a  word,  the  new  gift  was  the  gift  of 
the  perpetual  and  universal  presence  with  all  His  people 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  the  kinsman 
Redeemer,  by  an  entirely  new  manifestation  of  the  Spirit, 
in  like  manner  as  the  Incarnation  had  been  an  entirely 
new  manifestation  of  the  Son.  Was  not  this  something 
new  indeed  ?  Was  it  not  something  far  better  than 
Abraham,  or  David,  or  Moses,  or  any  of  these  ancient 
worthies  ever  enjoyed  ?  It  is  the  unspeakable  gift,  sealed 
and  made  an  heritage  to  the  Church  for  ever.  "  God  so 
loved  the  woi-ld  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son ; " 
and  that  only  begotten  Son,  having  by  His  atoning  death 


128  THE   INCARNATE   WOED   AND 

taken  away  the  sin  of  tlie  world,  gave  His  Holy  Spirit, 
full  of  grace  and  truth  and  tender  human  love,  to  abide 
with  His  redeemed  ones  evermore. 

May  we  not  say  then  that  the  Indwelling  crowns  the 
Incarnation  by  giving  it  universality  and  perpetuity  ? 
When  the  Spirit  takes  possession  of  the  hearts  of  Christ's 
people,  is  not  God  manifest  in  them  ?  The  Apostle  Paul 
at  all  events  does  not  hesitate  to  put  it  so :  "I  am  cruci- 
fied with  Christ,  nevertheless  I  live  ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me ;  "  and  again,  speaking  in  the  name  of  all 
true  believers :  "  We  are  members  of  His  body,  of  His 
flesh,  and  of  His  bones."  And  from  this  point  of  view 
we  see  a  new  light  in  those  words  of  the  Saviour  in 
reference  to  the  coming  of  the  Comforter :  "  At  that  day 
ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  ye  in  Me,  and 
I  in  you."  This  was  a  knowledge  which  the  saints  of 
old  had  not  at  all.  Nor  did  the  disciples  of  Christ  reach 
it  in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  It  was  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  that  they  could  rise  even  to  a  vague  conception 
of  the  truth  that  He  was  in  the  Father,  and  they  had  as 
yet  no  experience  of  being  in  Him,  and  He  in  them.  But 
to  those  who  have  received  the  Spirit  it  is  a  matter  of 
familiar  knowledge.  Not  that  they  understand  these 
mysterious  relations  ;  but  that  they  know  them  as  facts  of 
experience.  As  the  Apostle  John  puts  it :  "  We  know 
that  the  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath  given  us  an  under- 
standing, that  we  may  know  Him  that  is  true,  and  we  are 
in  Him  that  is  true,  even  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ."  The 
illustration  of  the  vine  and  the  branches  comes  home  as 
a  shadow  of  the  true  vine  and  its  branches — they  in  Him 
by  faith  as  the  branch  is  in  the  vine  from  which  it  draws 
its  life,  He  in  them  by  His  Spirit  as  the  sap  of  the  vine 
stalk  is  in  the  branch  throus^h  which  it  flows.     As  there 


THE    INDWELLING    SPIRIT.  I  29 

was  a  "  body  of  Jesus "  *  in  wliicli  tlie  Spirit  of  God 
dwelt  on  earth,  so  tliere  is  a  "  body  of  Christ,"  *  embrac- 
ing all  who  believe  in  Him  throughout  the  wide  world, 
in  which  the  Spirit  of  Christ  dwells.  The  Indwelling  of 
the  Spirit  is,  so  to  speak,  the  diffusion  of  the  Incarnation, 
the  consummation  of  which  will  be  reached  when  "  we 
all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ." 

*  These  expressions  are  never  used  as  synonyms  in  Scripture.    The  first 
always  means  the  natural,  the  second  always  the  mystical,  body. 


X. 

ELEMENTAL  EMBLEMS  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

AIR WATER FJRE. 

A  CCORDING  to  the  Ancients,  there  were  four  elements 
— Earth,  Water,  Air,  Fire.  These  formed  an  ascend- 
ing scale,  from  Earth  (which  stood  for  all  that  was  heavy, 
gross,  dark — in  a  word,  "  earthy")  to  Fire,  which  seemed 
a  thing  of  Heaven.  Water  and  Air  held  an  intermediate 
position  between  Earth  and  Fire,  but  had  their  associa- 
tions with  the  higher  rather  than  the  lower.  Earth  alone 
was  positively  gross.  All  the  rest  were  refined,  and  had, 
moreover,  refining  and  purifying  power.  Water  was  much 
less  gross  in  texture  than  Earth,  more  mobile,  more  alive, 
and  had,  besides,  the  power  of  giving  to  Earth  whatever 
life  it  had  ;  for  waterless  earth  is  always  desert.  Then, 
it  was  pure,  except  where  Earth  mixed  with  it  and  stained 
it ;  and  it  had  the  beneficent  power  of  washing  earth- 
stains  away. 

Air,  again,  was  still  more  refined  than  Water,  lighter, 
more  ethereal,  more  mobile  ;  invigorating,  fresh,  pure,  ex- 
cept when  charged  with  earthy  particles — soot,  or  smoke, 
or  dust,  or  something  foreign  to  its  native  purity ;  and 
then  it  was  specially  associated  with  life — for  man  lives 
in  the  Air  and  by  the  Air,  and  only  when  he  is  ready 
for  the  grave,  does  Earth  receive  him  to  itself.  Fire,  as 
we  have  said,  was  highest  of  all.      It  seemed  a  thing  of 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIKIT.  I3I 

Heaven  come  to  Earth,  Hence  the  old  theory  of  Prome- 
theus stealing  fire  from  Heaven — a  fable  which,  like  many 
of  its  kind,  is  more  than  fable — for  is  not  the  Fire  element 
heavenly  in  its  origin  as  none  of  the  others  are  ?  Our 
water,  and  our  air  even,  are  our  own,  all  contained  within 
earth's  envelope  or  sphere  ;  but  our  light  and  heat,  our 
fire,  comes  to  us  from  another  orb,  far  away ;  is  stolen, 
as  it  were,  from  Heaven.  And  this  is  even  truer  than  it 
seems,  as  science  has  made  plain  by  teaching  us  that  the 
hidden  fires  of  coal  and  all  inflammable  substances  are 
"  imprisoned  sunbeains"  of  long  ago.  See,  too,  how  much 
of  the  heavenly  nature  is  in  this  Fire  element.  It  shines 
with  its  own  light,  it  is  full  of  life  and  action — life  and 
action  not  given  to  it,  as  when  you  throw  a  stone  or  set 
a  stream  of  water  running  down  a  slope,  but  life  and 
action  which  seem  to  come  out  of  its  own  being ;  and 
see  how  it  diffuses  the  warmth  and  light  of  Heaven 
through  the  darkness  and  cold  of  Eai'th  ;  and,  while  all 
other  things  tend  downward,  it  always  soars,  as  if  strug- 
gling to  get  back  to  its  native  Heaven. 

We  know,  of  course,  that  these  old  world  ideas  were 
not  scientifically  correct ;  but  there  was,  and  there  is,  a 
great  deal  in  them.  They  give  at  least  phenomenal  truth  ; 
and  they  are  full  of  poetry,  which  is,  after  all,  deepest 
truth ;  and,  so  looked  at,  they  help  us  to  appreciate  the 
wealth  of  Scripture  imagery,  especially  in  relation  to 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  His  cleansing,  quickening,  and  re- 
fining power.  Man  as  a  sinner  is  "of  the  earth,  earthy  " 
— dull,  heavy,  dark,  dead.  God's  Spirit  comes  to  him 
like  water,  like  the  wind,  like  fire  (for  these  are  the  three 
great  symbols  of  the  Spirit ;  the  others  are  subordinate 
to  these,  as,  for  example,  the  oil  which  feeds  fire,  or  the 
dove  which  is  the  visible  embodiment  of  the  light  and 
air-like  visitation  of  the  Spirit),  bringing  life,  and  purity, 


132         ELEMENTAL   EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIEIT. 

and  refinement,  and  all  good  things,  from  the  heavenly 
sphere.  Earth,  dark  as  it  is,  and  dead  as  it  is  when  left 
to  itself,  is  yet  stored  with  abundance  of  life  germs,  re- 
maining dormant  and  to  all  appearance  quite  dead  till 
"  the  scent  of  water  makes  them  bud  ;  "  and  then  up  into 
the  air  they  grow  ;  on  it  and  by  the  water  they  feed,  every 
leaf  a  lung,  and  every  rootlet  a  mouth,  while  by  the  grace 
of  light  and  heat  they  come  to  lovely  flower  and  luscious 
fruit.  Is  there  not  a  whole  world  of  wealth  of  poetic 
imagery  in  these  old  elemental  emblems  ?  We  can  do 
little  more  than  show  the  way  to  some  of  it. 

I.  Let  us  begin  with  the  wind  or  the  air,  as  the  first 
and  simplest — first,  for  the  very  word  for  "  Spirit "  in 
the  language  of  the  Bible,  as  in  almost  all  languages, 
means  breath,  or  air ;  and  simplest,  as  containing  the 
most  elementary  conceptions  of  the  Spirit's  person  and 
work,  and  therefore  used  by  our  Lord  in  giving  to 
Nicodemus  his  first  conception  of  the  higher  things  of  the 
new  dispensation.  At  first,  indeed,  it  seems  disappoint- 
ingly negative  in  its  suggestions.  Air  cannot  be  seen, 
it  cannot  be  felt,  and  when  you  seem  to  hear  it  coming 
as  wind,  it  is  only  "  the  sound  thereof,"  it  is  known  only 
by  its  effects ;  and  then  it  "  bloweth  where  it  listeth," 
having  apparently  no  law  but  its  own  arbitrary  will ;  and 
"  thou  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it 
goeth  " — all  negative  and  disappointing — it  starts  in  the 
unknown,  it  leads  to  the  unknown,  its  ways  are  unknown, 
it  is  itself  unknown ;  it  is  all  unknown,  unknown ;  must 
we  then  be  Agnostics,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  it  ? 

But  we  cannot.  Notwithstanding  all  its  mystery,  there 
it  is,  and  we  cannot  get  away  from  it.  Though  we  do 
not  see  it,  and  even  when  we  do  not  feel  it,  it  is  all  about 
us,  in  close  relation  to  us,  and  our  very  life  depends  on  it. 
It  is  true  we  are  in  the  habit  of  treatinsr  it  as  if  it  were 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  1 33 

nothing.  We  use  it  as  a  symbol  of  unreality  and  empti- 
ness ;  and  yet  nothing  is  more  real,  nothing  more  vital  to 
our  well-being,  more  necessary  to  our  very  being.  And, 
again,  we  use  it  as  a  symbol  of  fickleness  and  inconstancy  ; 
and  yet  there  is  nothing  in  all  nature  on  which  we  can 
more  certainly  and  absolutely  depend.  Though  we  can 
never  tell  "  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth,"  we 
are  always  sure  of  it  wherever  we  go,  into  whatever  tree- 
less desert  or  waterless  waste — when  everything  else  fails 
us,  air  fails  us  never — we  are  always  sure  of  it  just  when 
and  where  and  in  what  quantities  we  need.  It  amounts 
to  this,  that  so  long  as  we  make  a  mere  study  of  this 
subtle  breath  that  breathes  around  us,  it  is  full  of  mystery 
and  of  insoluble  difficulty,  and  the  more  we  try  to  enter 
into  it  and  understand  it,  the  more  lost  we  are  and  ready 
to  take  refuge  in  the  convenient  retreat  of  the  Agnostic  ; 
but  when  we  cease  to  perplex  ourselves  as  to  whence  it 
cometh,  or  whither  it  goeth,  or  what  it  is,  and  just  take 
it  as  it  is,  open  our  windows  and  doors  and  let  it  in,  or 
go  out  into  the  fields  and  let  it  blow  around  us,  Ave  find 
it  all  we  could  desire,  and  in  it  life,  and  health,  and 
satisfaction. 

"  So  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit."  The 
Spirit  cannot  be  seen,  nor  grasped  by  the  hand,  nor  com- 
prehended by  the  intellect ;  but  He  is  near.  He  is  all 
about  us.  It  is  seldom  that  His  presence  makes  itself 
felt  in  any  startling  way.  Once  in  a  long  time  it  seems 
as  if  there  came  from  heaven  a  "  mighty  rushing  wind ; " 
but  usually  it  is  more  like  the  soft  wing  and  quiet  foot- 
steps of  the  dove.  It  is  like  the  gentle  breeze  which 
finds  a  tongue  in  the  murmur  of  the  leaves,  so  that  its 
voice  is  easily  missed.  But  at  any  time  we  have  only  to 
get  away  from  the  noise  and  bustle  of  the  world,  and, 
having  hushed  to  rest  all  the  uneasy  motions  of  our  own 


134         ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT. 

spirits,  to  wake  up  our  hearts  to  listen,  and  we  shall  cer- 
tainly hear  the  voice  of  God — it  may  be  in  awful  tones, 
like  the  moaning  of  the  pine-trees  in  the  dark,  or  even 
terrible,  like  the  rush  of  the  tempest,  so  as  to  compel  the 
cry,  "  "What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? "  or  in  its  more 
familiar  tones  of  gentlest  whisperings,  like  these  :  "  Come 
unto  Me,  and  I  will  give  you  rest ;  "  "  Thy  sins  are  forgiven 
thee  ;  go  in  peace." 

"  At  any  time  ?  "  But  the  ''  wind  bloweth  where  it 
listeth,"  and  how  can  I  make  sure  of  it  when  I  list  ? 
Look  at  the  symbol  once  again.  Little  as  we  know  of 
the  motions  of  the  wind,  and  impossible  as  we  find  it  to 
control  its  currents,  there  is  one  thing  we  know  for  cer- 
tain, that  wherever  we  make  space  for  it,  in  it  will  come. 
The  house  a  man  lives  in  may  be  full  of  the  most  noxious 
gases,  and  so  long  as  he  keeps  open  drains  beneath  it, 
and  these  never  cease  to  send  up  their  noisome  exhala- 
tions, there  must  be  death  in  the  house ;  but  if  only  he 
will  close  these  drains,  or  have  them  flushed  and  cleansed, 
and  then  open  his  doors  and  windows,  death  will  be  driven 
out,  and  life  and  health  will  come  in.  He  does  not  need 
to  know  all  about  meteorology  to  be  sure  of  this  ;  he 
may  be  totally  ignorant  of  ventilation,  or  even  thoroughly 
sceptical  about  it ;  but  common-sense  will  tell  him  that 
he  has  only  to  trust  the  wind  ;  let  it  blow  as  it  list,  no 
matter  "  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth,"  he  has 
only  to  let  it  in  ;  and  presently  the  house  will  be  clean, 
and  sweet,  and  wholesome,  and  will  remain  so,  if  he  in 
the  first  place  has  thoroughly  cleansed  it,  down  to  the 
very  foundation,  and  in  the  second  place  opens  the  win- 
dows often  enough  to  let  in  a  fresh  supply.  Is  it  not 
then  a  good  thing,  after  all,  that  "  the  wind  bloweth 
where  it  listeth  "  ?  So  long  as  it  always  listeth  to  bring 
such  blessings  on  its  wings  to  all  who  make  it  welcome, 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIEIT.  1 35 

let  it  blow  on,  however  little  we  understand  about  it, 
however  helpless  we  may  be  when  we  try  to  command  it 
otherwise  than  as  it  listeth. 

The  supply  is  unfailing.  For,  while  the  air  we  breathe 
is  the  most  valuable  and  indispensable  of  all  the  gifts  of 
God  to  men,  it  is  the  one  of  all  others  that  has  been 
given  in  greatest  abundance.  The  supply  is  inexhaustible  ; 
and  the  poorest  is  as  welcome  to  it  as  the  richest.  Men 
may  buy  and  sell  the  earth  on  which  we  tread.  Even 
water  must  often  be  bought  with  money ;  and  there  are 
places  where  it  is  not  to  be  had  at  all.  Light  is  bought 
and  sold,  heat  is  bought  and  sold ;  but  atmospheric  air 
never.  Men  have  to  purchase  horse-power,  water-power, 
steam-power ;  but  the  power  of  the  wind  is  free  to  all. 
Free  as  the  air  we  breathe,  or  the  wind  that  blows  around 
us  is,  the  Spirit's  quickening  grace.  None  can  buy  it, 
none  can  earn  it,  but  all  may  have  it  in  rich  abundance 
if  only  they  will  ask  it — in  unmeasured  quantity,  one 
might  say ;  for  it  is  true,  just  as  it  is  true  of  the  air,  with 
this  qualification,  that  the  measure  is  limited  only  by  the 
capacity  of  that  which  is  open  to  receive  it.  "  Open  thy 
mouth  wide  and  I  will  fill  it."  Blessed  be  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the  royal  bounty  of 
His  Spirit's  grace  as  set  before  us  in  the,  at  first  sight 
disappointing,  but  in  the  end  most  satisfactory  and  en- 
couraging, symbol  of  the  air. 

II.  We  now  pass  to  the  symbol  of  water.  But  before 
doing  so  let  us  endeavour  to  get  some  idea  of  how  the 
two  symbols  of  air  and  water  stand  related  to  each  other. 
The  research  of  modern  science  has  brought  out  the  fact 
that  this  air  which  breathes  around  us,  even  when  it 
seems  most  utterly  transparent,  is  laden  with  germs  of 
life  ;  and  wherever  there  is  susceptibility  for  their  develop- 
ment, nothing  more  than  contact  is  needful  to  secure  it. 


136         ELExMENTAL   EMBLEMS    OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

Take  off  the  seal  from  the  infusion,  expose  the  surface, 
and  life  will  spring  up  at  once. 

Now,  the  susceptibility  for  development  of  which  we 
have  spoken  consists  especially  in  the  presence  of  water. 
Without  water  there  can  be  no  springing  up  of  life.  We 
know  how  absolutely  necessary  it  is  to  all  forms  of  vege- 
table life — waterless  land  is  always  desert ;  and  we  have 
learned  from  recent  experiments  that  in  the  same  way  it 
is  only  when  a  watery  surface  is  exposed  to  the  air  that 
the  germs  with  which  the  atmosphere  is  stored  awake  to 
life.  Bearing  this  in  mind  as  the  link  of  connection 
between  air  and  water  as  to  the  development  of  life, 
let  us  now  proceed  to  consider  the  truth  concerning  the 
Spirit  as  set  forth  in  the  water  symbol. 

There  are  so  many  passages  in  which  the  Spirit  is  set 
forth  under  this  symbol  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  refer 
to  them,  further  than  to  call  to  mind  that  just  as  the 
word  "  spirit "  suggests  the  symbol  of  air,  the  way  in 
which  the  Spirit  is  most  frequently  promised  suggests 
the  symbol  of  water  :  "  I  will  230ur  out  My  Spirit."  Per- 
haps, however,  one  very  definite  passage  may  be  referred 
to,  that  in  which  the  Lord  Himself,  after  speaking  of 
Himself  as  the  fountain,  refers  to  the  flowing  of  the 
waters,  and  adds,  "  This  spake  He  of  the  Spirit."  More 
of  this  anon. 

We  have  seen  that  the  emblem  of  the  air  applies 
readily  to  the  universal  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in 
all  places  and  at  all  times ;  but  this  one  of  water  sug- 
gests some  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  which  is  not  equal 
everywhere  and  always,  but  is  found  here  and  there,  like 
fountains  and  springs,  and  now  and  then,  like  dew  and 
showers,  and  which,  instead  of  moving  hither  and  thither, 
like  the  wind,  which  "  bloweth  where  it  listeth,"  flows  in 
certain  channels,  like  our  streams  and  rivers.    Accordingly, 


I 


ELEMENTAL   EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  1 37 

we  find  that  whenever  the  symbol  of  water  is  used,  the 
reference  is  to  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  not  as  everywhere 
present,  but  always  in  relation  to  some  particular  man  or 
men  who  have  thus  become  fountains  of  living  waters. 
The  well-known  prophecy,  "A  man  shall  be  as  rivers  of 
water  in  a  dry  place,"  is  fulfilled  first  in  Christ  (the 
anointed  One,  anointed  with  the  Spirit),  who  received  the 
Spirit  without  measure,  and  who  is  therefore  the  fountain- 
head  of  all  living-  waters  ;  and  next  in  those  who  have 
received  of  His  Spirit,  and  who  thus  in  their  turn  become 
fountains  or  rivers. 

The  symbol  is  even  more  appropriate  than  at  first 
appears.  We  have  learned  from  chemistry  that  between 
air  and  water  there  is  one  element  in  common,  and  that 
the  great  life-giving  element  of  each — viz.,  oxygen.  But 
there  is  this  difference,  that  the  oxygen  of  the  air  is  free 
— i.e.,  uncombined  with  any  other  element ;  while  in  water 
it  exists  only  in  combination  with  another  element.  It 
is  oxygen  that  gives  value  to  water  as  well  as  to  air ; 
but  in  the  air  it  does  its  work  immediately  and  directly, 
in  its  own  name,  so  to  speak  ;  in  the  other  case  it  does 
its  work  mediately — not  as  oxygen,  but  as  water.  Now 
let  us  think,  alongside  of  this,  of  the  ways  in  which  the 
Spirit  of  God  reaches  us.  First,  His  presence  is  diff'used 
everywhere,  like  the  air,  and  we  have  only  to  open  our 
hearts  to  Him  to  have  Him  come  to  us  immediately  and 
directly,  as  the  Spirit  of  God,  like  the  wind  which  "bloweth 
where  it  listeth."  But  besides  this.  He  has  entered  into 
combination  with  the  human  spirit,  so  that  human  life 
and  thought  and  feeling  have  been,  so  to  speak,  saturated 
with  His  grace.  Thus  it  was  that  "the  prophecy  came 
not  of  old  time  by  the  will  of  man  "  merely,  but  "  holy 
men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."      This  "  speaking   in  the  Spirit "  is  the  flowing 


o 


8         ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF   THE    SPIRIT. 


of  the  waters;  and  hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  this  water 
symbol  is  so  constantly  associated  with  the  "Word ;  as,  for 
example,  when  the  Church  is  spoken  of  as  "  sanctified  and 
cleansed  with  the  crashing  of  water  ly  the  Word."  The 
Word  is  the  water,  but  what  is  the  oxygen  that  gives  it 
its  value  ?  It  is  the  Holy  Sjjirit's  grace.  He  comes,  not 
in  His  own  name,  but  through  the  medium  of  the  Word ; 
just  as  the  oxygen,  which  in  the  air  is  free,  comes,  un- 
recognised perhaps,  but  really  comes,  through  the  medium 
of  the  water.  Thus  in  the  water,  which,  unlike  the  om- 
nipresent air,  springs  from  a  particular  point  and  flows 
in  certain  well-defined  channels,  we  have  a  fitting  emblem 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  as  poured  out  itpon  men,  who  become,  as 
it  were,  channels  of  divine  grace  flowing  forth  from  them  to 
others.  Then,  just  as  oxygen  in  both  its  forms  is  neces- 
sary to  life — for  we  cannot  live  without  water  any  more 
than  without  air — so  in  order  to  spiritual  life  we  must 
have  the  Spirit  in  both  His  manifestations :  "  Except  a 
man  be  born  of  2vatcr  and  of  the  Spirit  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God."  It  will  not  do  for  a  man 
to  shut  his  Bible,  and  turn  away  from  Christ  and  His 
apostles  and  prophets,  and  say,  "  Why  should  I  trouble 
myself  about  what  Moses,  or  David,  or  Isaiah,  or  John, 
or  Paul,  or  even  Christ  has  said  ?  Is  not  God's  Spirit 
present  everywhere,  and  cannot  He  speak  to  me  directly  ? 
My  temple  is  this  great  universe,  my  God  is  the  God  of 
great  Nature,  who  can  speak  to  me  as  well  in  the  green 
fields,  or  on  the  purj^le  hills,  or  in  the  light  of  setting 
suns,  or  in  the  moaning  of  the  lonely  sea,  as  He  can  speak 
to  you  in  your  little  church,  or  from  your  Bible,  or  through 
the  life  and  lips  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth."  Perhaps  that 
might  have  sufiiced  if  it  had  not  been  true  tliat  "  that 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,"  while  only  "  that  which 
is    born  of  the  Spirit  is   Spirit."      It   might   have   been 


ELEMENTAL   EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIEIT.  1 39 

sufficient  if  we  had  been  not  carnal  at  all,  but  spiritual, 
our  souls  in  closest  touch  with  the  omnipresent  Spirit  of 
God,  ourselves  pure  and  holy,  with  no  earthliness  or  sin 
to  liinder  our  receptivity  of  the  divine.  But  manifestly 
it  is  not  so.  None  of  us  is  thus  receptive  of  the  divine. 
Hence  we  must  have  the  divine  brought  nearer  to  our 
capacities  as  men,  mortal  men  of  flesh  and  blood.  So  the 
Word  must  become  flesh  and  dwell  among  us.  We  can- 
not reach  God  in  any  independent  fashion.  We  cannot 
"  by  searching  find  out  God,"  The  result  of  any  such 
quest  must  be,  as  we  flnd  in  these  daj's  it  is,  the  void  of 
Agnosticism.  We  must  find  a  point  of  contact,  of  vital 
contact  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  this  is  found  only  in 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  filled  with  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  when  we  are  united  to  Him  by  a  living  faith,  by 
the  loving  trust  of  the  soul,  the  contact  is  established — 
and  then,  like  the  rush  of  healing,  cooling,  refreshing, 
life-giving  waters,  the  Spirit  of  God  flows  in  upon  our 
souls. 

We  can  now  see  why  it  is  necessary  to  welcome  the 
Spirit  in  both  His  manifestations  in  order  that  we  may  be 
quickened  and  refreshed.  There  must  be  first  the  Word, 
saturated  with  the  Spirit's  grace,  the  Holy  Scriptures 
which  testify  of  Christ  the  living  Word ;  but  this  is  not 
sufficient ;  for  how  often  are  the  Scriptures  read,  even 
read  with  attention  and  interest,  without  any  saving- 
result  ;  and  that  not  only  when  the  Gospel  is  scornfully 
rejected,  but  even  when  it  is  respectfully  listened  to. 
What  is  wanting  ?  Is  not  the  Spirit  there  in  the  Word  ? 
Yes ;  but  He  must  also  be  welcomed  immediately  and 
directly,  coming  as  the  air  or  breath  of  God.  As  we  read 
or  hear  the  Word,  we  must  lift  up  our  souls  in  prayer 
for  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  directly  to  our  own  minds 
and  hearts  that  He  may  quicken  into  life  the  seeds  of 


140         ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF   THE    SPIRIT. 

truth  it  carries.  "  The  Spirit  breathes  upon  the  Word," 
and  it  becomes  living  waters  to  our  thirsty  souls. 

But  the  symbol  of  water  carries  us  further  than  this. 
It  has  important  teaching,  not  only  as  to  the  way  in  which 
life  is  received,  but  as  to  the  way  in  which  it  is  communi- 
cated to  others.  On  that  great  occasion  when  the  waters 
from  the  fountain  of  Siloam  were  poured  out  beside  the 
altar,  and,  amid  the  rejoicing  throng,  Jesus  stood  and 
cried,  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  to  Me  and  drink," 
He  did  not  stop  there,  but  went  on  to  say,  "  He  that 
believeth  on  Me,  out  of  his  inmost  life  shall  flow  rivers  of 
living  water.  This  spake  He  of  the  Spirit  which  they 
that  believed  on  Him  should  receive."  Already  this  had 
been  realised  in  the  case  of  those  "holy  men  of  old,"  who 
"  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  "  but  the 
time  was  coming  when  it  should  be  a  promise  for  all :  "  It 
shall  come  to  pass  in  those  days  that  I  shall  pour  out 
My  Spirit  upon  all  ficsh."  Every  believer  in  Jesus  was 
now  called  not  merely  to  drink  himself,  but  to  become  a 
fountain  of  living  water  to  others.  As  the  prophet  Joel 
put  it  in  a  less  known  portion  of  his  great  Pentecost 
prophecy,  "  It  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  that  .  .  .  all 
the  hrooJcs  of  Judali  shall  flow  with  waters."  In  the  olden 
time  there  had  been  here  and  there  a  man  "  like  rivers  of 
water  in  a  dry  place  " — a  Moses,  a  David,  an  Isaiah ;  but 
now  "  all  the  hrool's  "  are  to  "  flow  with  waters." 

For  an  illustration  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  on 
the  largest  scale  we  cannot  do  better  than  look  at  the 
great  change  that  passed  over  the  disciples  at  Pentecost. 
They  had  been  drinking  of  the  fountain  all  the  time  of 
their  discipleship  ;  but  only  then  did  they  become  fountains 
themselves  ;  only  from  that  time  did  the  rivers  of  living 
water  begin  to  flow  from  them.  And  think  what  rivers 
they  were  !      Think  of  John — his  life  saturated  with  the 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIKIT.  14I 

Spirit  of  his  Master,  sending  fortli  constant  streams  of 
blessing  for  nearly  seventy  years ;  his  gospel,  no  mere 
record,  as  of  a  scribe,  every  sentence  of  it  flowing,  not 
from  his  pen,  not  from  his  fingers,  not  from  his  mind 
merely,  but  from  the  inmost  recesses  of  his  soul ;  his 
letters  so  instinct  with  the  life  of  his  Master,  so  full  of 
His  Spirit  of  love  and  tenderness  ;  his  Apocalypse, — what 
an  opening  of  Heaven  that  has  been,  not  to  John  himself 
merely,  to  make  up  for  the  shutting  of  earth,  but  to  what 
multitudes  since  then !  We  get  bewildered  with  the 
magnitude  of  that  one  man's  influence  for  good ;  but  take 
a  little  portion  only  as  a  sample.  Suppose  we  could  trace 
the  history  of  the  last  two  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Reve- 
lation down  the  ages,  and  get  some  idea  of  the  comfort 
and  refreshment  and  revival  they  have  brought  to  human 
lives,  would  it  not  be  a  most  wonderful  story,  a  new 
Apocalypse  ?  Was  not  his  own  symbol  a  prophecy  of  it, 
"  a  river  of  water  of  Life  proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb  "  ?  God  and  the  Lamb  were  en- 
throned in  his  heart,  therefore  from  its  recesses  these 
rivers  have  flowed.  And  so  will  it  be,  in  measure,  with  all 
hearts  where  God  and  the  Lamb  are  enthroned.  We 
cannot  all  be  Johns,  indeed  ;  but  according  to  our  capacity 
and  opportunity  we  may  be  fountains  of  living  waters, 
and  all  of  us  to  a  much  larger  extent  than  we  are  apt  to 
imagine.  It  might  be  presumption,  indeed,  for  me  to 
expect  that  out  of  my  poor  little  life  should  flow  such 
streams  of  living  power.  But  it  is  not  from  me,*  it  is 
from  the  Christ-life  in  me  that  they  are  to  flow :  "  He 
that  believeth  on  Me,  out  of  him  shall  flow."  "  This  spake 
He  of  the  Spirit,"  The  man  is  only  the  channel.  The 
Spirit  is  the  living  water,  and  though  it  might  be  vain 
for  a  man  to  think  he  could  be  a  source  of  blessing,  may 
*  "  Behold  THY  POUND  hath  gained  ten  pounds." 


142  ELEMENTAL   EMBLEMS    OF    THE   SPIPJT. 

lie  not  be  a  channel  of  it  ?  Look  at  John  again  ;  wliat 
could  he  have  done  as  John  ?  Probably  no  more  than 
any  John  among  us.  May  there  not  then  be  for  any  be- 
liever, not,  of  course,  the  special  usefulness  of  the  Apostle, 
but  something,  at  all  events,  far  removed  from  the  com- 
monplace or  the  poor ;  something  really  worthy  of  Christ, 
from  whom  the  Spirit  comes,  and  of  the  Spirit  Himself; 
something  far  beyond  what  apart  from  the  power  that 
worketh  in  us  "  we  could  even  ask  or  think"  ?  And  if 
it  is  still  difficult  to  entertain  such  large  expectations,  we 
may  be  helped  to  it  by  remembering  that  our  lives  do  not 
stand  alone.  Each  life  influences  many  other  lives.  There 
is  no  follower  of  Christ,  however  obscure,  who  might  not 
be  the  means  of  bringing  to  life  some  other  soul,  from 
whom  rivers  of  living  water  might  flow.  And  why  only 
one  ?  Why  not  two,  three,  four,  more,  many  more  ?  And 
if  so,  at  once  we  are  launched  on  streams  flowing  out  into 
the  plain  of  the  future,  with  ever  larger  possibilities  as 
time  passes  on.  Thus  in  grace,  as  well  as  in  nature,  the 
tiniest  stream  may  in  process  of  time  become  a  very 
Amazon.  "  He  that  believeth  on  Me,  out  of  his  inmost 
life  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water." 

If  individual  life  have  such  promise  and  potency,  what 
shall  be  said  of  Church  life  ?  Kecall  the  striking  vision 
of  Ezekiel  in  his  forty-seventh  chapter,  of  the  waters 
issuing  from  the  House  of  the  Lord  close  beside  the 
altar,  rising  first  to  the  ankles,  then  to  the  knees,  then 
to  the  loins,  then  to  the  depth  of  a  great  river  to  swim 
in,  and  so  flowing  on  and  on,  carrying  life  and  verdure 
and  blessing  all  along  its  course,  through  the  wastes  of 
the  wilderness  of  Judah,  and  at  last  sweetening  the  waters 
of  the  Dead  Sea  itself.  What  a  grand  ideal  of  the 
Church,  and  Church  life  and  power — partially  realised 
at  Pentecost,  where  we  can  see  the  waters  issuing  from 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SFIPJT.  1 43 

beside  tlie  great  world-altar  at  Jerusalem,  from  beside 
the  cross  on  wliicli  Christ,  "  lifted  up,"  began  to  "  draw 
all  men  unto  Him  ;  "  we  can  see  them  flowing  on  through 
Judea,  and  Samaria,  and  Galilee,  and  Cyprus,  and  Asia 
Minor,  and  Macedonia,  and  Greece,  and  Rome,  and  west- 
ward, westward ;  we  can  see  them  even  sweeten  the 
waters  of  the  Dead  Sea  of  Eoman  corruption  and  bar- 
barian brutality — we  can  trace  it  all  in  history ;  not  that 
the  vision  is  fully  realised,  but  enough  to  give  an  earnest 
of  its  final  accomplishment,  as  sketched  in  the  Apocalypse 
of  Patmos  :  "  And  he  shewed  me  a  pure  river  of  water  of 
life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of  God 
and  of  the  Lamb.  In  the  midst  of  the  street  of  it,  and 
on  either  side  of  the  river,  was  there  the  Tree  of  Life, 
which  bare  twelve  manner  of  fruits,  and  yielded  her 
fruit  every  month ;  and  the  leaves  of  the  tree  were  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations.  And  there  shall  be  no  more 
curse." 

That  is  the  final  fulfilment,  the  realisation  of  the 
true  ideal  of  Church  life  and  power.  Meantime,  why 
should  we  not  approximate  it,  seeing  the  Pentecostal 
blessing  is  still  at  our  disposal  as  fully  as  ever  ?  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  overestimate  the  power  for  good  even 
of  a  small  community  of  Christians,  if  only  they  would 
make  the  promises  of  Christ  their  own,  and  yield  them- 
selves, emptied  of  self  and  sin,  to  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit,  so  that  it  might  be  said  of  them  as  it  was  pro- 
phesied of  the  first  little  church  in  Judah  :  "It  shall 
come  to  pass  in  that  day  that  all  the  brooks  of  Judah 
shall  flow  with  waters."  And  if  such  is  the  power  of  a 
single  little  community  filled  and  flowing  with  the  Spirit 
of  Life,  what  might  we  not  expect  if  the  whole  Church 
to-day  were  so  filled  with  the  Spirit  ?  And  why  not  ? 
Why  should  there  not  be  a  general  waiting  on  the  Lord, 


144         ELEMENTAL   EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT. 

"  until  the  Spirit  be  poured  out  from  on  high,  and  the 
wilderness  become  a  fruitful  field,  and  the  fruitful  field  be 
counted  for  a  forest  "  ? 

III.  The  highest  symbol  of  the  Spirit's  power  still 
remains,  that  of  fire.  The  symbol  of  air  belongs  to 
all  dispensations  alike,  but  it  was  specially  characteristic 
of  the  Old  Testament.  "  Whither  shall  I  go  from  Thy 
Spirit  ?  If  I  ascend  up  to  Heaven,  Thou  art  there  ;  if  I 
take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  sea,  Thou  art  there  " — such  utterances 
as  this  show  how  fully  the  Old  Testament  saints  realised 
the  omnipresence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  so  well  set  forth 
in  the  air  symbol,  which  is  embodied  in  the  very  name 
by  which  He  was  known.  Water  is  also  frequently  used 
in  the  Old  Testament  as  a  symbol  of  the  Spirit,  but 
almost  always  in  the  way  of  prophecy,  pointing  on  to 
the  time  of  the  Incarnation,  when  it  becomes  prominent. 
The  meaning  of  the  symbol  was  not  fully  unfolded  until 
Christ,  first  at  "  Jacob's  Well,"  and  then  at  Jerusalem  in 
connection  with  the  pouring  out  of  the  water  from  the 
pool  of  Siloam,  set  forth  Himself  as  the  fountain  and  His 
people  as  the  rivers  to  convey  the  grace  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  the  Water  of  Life,  to  a  thirsty  and  sinful  world. 
These  waters  were  to  flow  on  through  the  next  dispensa- 
tion ;  but  inasmuch  as  they  took  origin  from  Christ  Him- 
self, they  may  be  reckoned  as  pertaining  to  the  time  of 
the  Incarnation.  But  there  still  remains  a  symbol  which 
is  the  special  property  of  the  dispensation  under  which 
we  live,  beginning  at  Pentecost,  and  is  therefore  known 
as  "  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit."  In  the  Old  Testa- 
ment the  Spirit  was  known  under  the  symbol  of  the 
air,  and  promised  under  the  symbol  of  water.  In  the 
time  of  Christ  the  Spirit  began  to  be  known  under  the 
symbol  of  water,  and  was  promised  under  a  new  symbol. 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  1 45 

as  in  tliese  striking  words  of  John  the  Baptist :  "  He 
shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  Jirc." 
In  accordance  with  this,  the  outward  accompaniment  of 
the  Pentecostal  baptism  was  the  appearance  of  "tongues 
of  fire " — tongues,  the  old  idea  of  the  Word,  which,  as 
we  found,  was  symbolised  in  the  water  ;  but  now  it  is  not 
merely  a  word  like  flowing  waters,  but  like  spreading  ^?'e. 
Fire  had  been  from  the  beginning  a  symbol  of  the 
Divine  presence,  as  every  reader  of  the  Bible  knows  ; 
but  now  it  is  set  apart  as  the  distinctive  symbol  of  the 
Spirit  since  the  exaltation  of  Christ.  We  found  in  the 
beginning  that  while  air  and  water  belong  to  earth,  fire 
is  a  thing  of  Heaven ;  they  are  of  this  little  planet,  it  is 
of  the  great  and  distant  sun.  It  seems  especially  appro- 
priate, then,  that  after  the  Ascension  the  blessing  of  the 
Spirit  coming  down  from  the  heavenly  throne  should  be 
set  forth  under  the  symbol  of  fire.  And  we  have  now 
reached  a  point  of  view  in  which  we  can  see  also  the 
naturalness  of  the  order  in  which  the  symbols  are  deve- 
loped in  the  Scriptures.  If  it  had  been  a  simple  ascend- 
ing scale,  it  would  have  been  first  water,  then  air,  and 
lastly  fire.  But  it  is  not  an  ascending  scale.  There  is 
a  deep  descent  into  the  valley  of  humiliation,  followed 
by  an  ascent  to  the  throne.  Even  in  the  Old  Testament 
God  humbled  Himself  to  dwell  among  men  in  the  spiri- 
tual sense — a  presence  which  is  fitly  symbolised  by  the 
air  which  is  all  about  the  earth,  but  not  at  all  of  it.  It 
was  a  much  deeper  humiliation  when  He  "  became  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us,"  a  presence  which  is,  as  we  have 
seen,  appropriately  represented  as  living  waters  issuing 
from  an  earth  fountain  and  flowing  along  earthy  channels. 
But  now  He  that  first  descended  has  ascended  above  all 
Heavens,  and  so  His  presence  among  us  now  is  most  fitly 
represented   under  the  heavenly   emblems  of  light   and 

K 


146         ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT. 

heat  that  come  down  to  us  from  the  sun,  or,  to  put  all  in 
a  single  word — the  emblem  of  fire. 

At  first  sight,  indeed,  it  does  seem  strange  that  the  same 
thing  could  possibly  be  represented  under  symbols  so  utterly 
diverse  as  those  of  water  and  fire,  which  seem  to  be  sworn 
foes,  mutually  destructive.  But  this  is  only  to  a  super- 
ficial view.  Modern  chemistry  and  physics  have  taught 
us  not  only  that  the  life-giving  element  in  air  and  water 
is  the  same,  but  that  this  same  oxygen,  so  potent  in  its 
life-giving  power  in  the  air  and  in  the  water,  is  equally 
potent  in  the  fire.  What  is  fire  ?  It  is  the  combination 
of  this  invisible,  impalpable,  ethereal  element  with  some 
grosser  substance.  Take,  for  example,  the  familiar  case 
of  coal,  which  is  dull,  heavy,  hard,  dead,  emphatically  "  of 
the  earth,  earthy,"  until  this  wonderful  ethereal  element 
combines  with  it ;  and  then  it  lives,  it  leaps,  it  glows,  it 
sparkles,  it  soars,  develops  latent  power  in  the  most  mar- 
vellous manner — drives  engines,  sets  whole  factories  to 
work,  runs  trains,  does  the  work  of  a  thousand  men  or 
horses — and  then  ascends  into  the  unseen,  claiming  no 
credit  to  itself,  "  only  remembered  by  what  it  has  done." 
So  is  every  one  that  is  touched  by  the  heavenly  flame  of 
the  Spirit,  every  one  who  truly  and  fully  receives  the 
baptism  of  fire. 

This  baptism  of  fire  implies  both  a  new  element  of  life  and 
a  new  energy  of  life, — a  new  element,  so  that  Christians  are 
spoken  of  as  living  in  the  Spirit  and  walking  in  the  Spirit ; 
and  a  new  energy,  for  we  read  equally  of  the  Spirit  being 
in  them  and  working  in  them.  In  truth,  all  the  different 
symbols  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  lend  themselves 
to  this  twofold  conception.  Air  is  the  element  in  which 
we  live ;  but  it  must  enter  into  us,  by  the  nostrils  and 
lungs  into  our  very  blood  it  must  enter,  that  we  may  live 
by  it.     Tlien,  water,  for  purposes  of  cleansing,  must  be 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  1 47 

applied  from  without ;  but  we  must  also  drink  it,  take  it 
within  us,  that  we  may  live  by  it.  So  in  the  same  way 
when  we  would  heat  a  cold  iron,  we  must  first  put  it  into 
fire,  so  that  the  heat  may  be  all  around  it ;  but  presently 
we  find  that  the  heat  has  entered  into  it,  deep  into  the 
inmost  recesses  of  its  compact  structure.  Not  only  is  the 
iron  in  the  fire,  but  the  fire  is  in  the  iron  too.  The  new 
element  around  has  developed  a  new  energy  within.  So 
is  every  one  that  is  baptized  of  the  Spirit.  By  faitli  in 
Christ  we  are  introduced  into  a  new  element  of  life.  We 
see  everything  through  a  different  medium — we  see  in 
the  light  of  eternity,  we  judge  by  the  measures  of  eter- 
nity. The  temperature  is  changed  ;  we  have  passed  out 
of  the  winter  of  selfishness  into  the  summer  of  love — 
from  the  region  of  the  cold  North  and  East  winds,  in 
which  all  living  things  wither  and  die,  into  that  of  the 
warm  South  and  West  winds,  whose  breath  brings  life  and 
spreads  dewy  fragrance  all  around.  Thus  genuine  fixith 
in  Christ  changes  the  very  temperature  in  which  we  live 
— it  gives  us  a  new  environment.  But  we  need  not  only 
a  new  environment,  but  a  new  life.  When  the  warm 
South  wind  comes,  it  wakes  new  life  in  every  bud — some 
warm  germinating  power  is  set  to  work  within — and  it  is 
this  unseen  energy  working  in  millions  of  life  germs  and 
buds  which  brings  about  the  blessed  change  that  ushers 
in  the  summer  life  and  beauty.  So  is  it  in  the  heart  of 
every  one  that  truly  believes  in  Christ.  The  fire  without 
is  answered  by  the  fire  within. 

This  fire  within  has  a  twofold  energy.  It  is  first  a 
cleansing  fire.  This  cleansing  agency  is,  of  course,  very 
prominent  under  the  symbol  of  water.  But  there  is  far 
more  energy  in  this  symbol,  which  suggests  the  idea  of 
searching,  penetrating,  resistless  agency.  There  are  some 
stains  that  water  cannot  take  out.      It  may  be  that  they 


148         ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIKIT. 

are  so  ingrained  in  tlie  substance  tliat  water  only  passes 
over  them  ;   or  tliat  tliey  are  so  far  within  the  intricacies 
of  its  mechanism  or  constitution,  so  out  of  reach,  that  no 
mere  washing  can  touch  them.      The  only  way  to  get  rid 
of  such  stains  is  to  have  them  burned  out.      For  while 
water  only  affects  the  outside   of  a  hard  substance,  fire 
penetrates  the  pores  ;   it  searches  into  the  inmost  recesses 
of  the   heavy,    hard,   compact    iron,    for    example.      Its 
work  is    thorough.      When    it    changes    a    substance    it 
changes  it  through  and  through,  as  when  the  hard  rock 
becomes  quick-lime.     Such  is  the  cleansing  power  of  the 
baptism  of  fire.      John's  was  the  baptism  of  repentance, 
and  when  the  soldiers  asked  him,  "  What  shall  we  do  ?  " 
he   said,    "  Do  violence  to    no  man,   neither  accuse  any 
falsely,  and  be  content  with  your  wages  ;  "  when  the  pub- 
licans asked  the  question,  he  said,  "  Exact  no  more  than 
is  appointed  you  ;  "  when  the  people  asked  him,  he  said, 
"  He   that   hath   two   coats   let  him  impart  to  him   that 
hath  none  ;  he  that  hath  meat  let  him  do  likewise."     All 
very  good,  most  valuable,  and  necessary,  but  all  belonging 
to  the  surface  of  the  life,  such  as  the  baptism  of  water 
might  reach.     How  different  from  Him  that  came  after 
him,  who  searched  down  to  the  angry  thought,  the  lust- 
ful look,  the  covetous  heart,  penetrating  to  the   deepest 
thoughts   and  intents  of  the  hidden  life   of  the  Spirit  ! 
Now,  when  the  Spirit  comes  in  the  name  of  Christ,  He 
carries  His  cleansing  fires  right  in,  in,  in,  to  the  deepest 
recesses  of  the  heart,  and  burns  out  the  impurity  which 
had  been  there  ingrained,  even  that  which  seemed  to  have 
become  part  of  our  very  nature.     Oh,  are  there  not  many 
that  need  this  burning  out  ?      Do  not  all  need  it  more  or 
less  ?      Then  let  us  not  shrink  from  it ;  let  us  welcome  it, 
let  us  petition  for  it :   "  Come,  Holy  Spirit,  come  ;  come 
as  the  fire,  the  cleansing  fire,  and  make  us  pure  within !  " 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  1 49 

And  why  sliould  any  one  slirink  from  it  ?  It  is  no  wast- 
ing, desolating  fire  witli  which  He  comes  ;  it  is  the  blessed 
fire  of  love — a  love,  however,  which  has  for  its  counter- 
part a  holy  jealousy,  keenly  sensitive  to  anything  that 
mars  the  union  of  the  soul  in  marriage  covenant  with  the 
Heavenly  Bridegroom — a  holy  fire  of  love,  which,  even 
as  the  sun  allowed  with  full  ray  to  stream  upon  the  fire  in 
the  grate  is  supposed  first  to  pale  it  and  then  put  it  out, 
so,  if  allowed  full  play  in  the  heart,  wdll  really  cause  the  old 
wasting  fires  of  lust  and  passion  first  to  pale  and  then  to 
perish,  quenched  in  the  blessed  light  and  heat  of  Heaven. 
But  the  energy  is  not  of  cleansing  merely,  but  of 
quickening.  Here  again  we  are  on  the  old  ground. 
We  had  it  in  the  symbol  of  the  air.  We  had  it  also  in 
the  symbol  of  the  water.  But  here  again  there  is  an 
energy  in  the  new  symbol  of  fire  which  is  lacking  in  the 
others.  Water  and  air  are  restoratives.  But  fire  does 
not  merely  restore  an  energy  which  belongs  to  the  life 
already.  It  comes  as  a  new  energy  altogether,  where 
there  was  none  before — a  new  energy  working  all  through, 
making  that  which  was  dull  before  to  burn  and  glow, 
causing  that  which  before  lay  useless,  only  taking  up 
room,  like  dead  coals  in  a  fireplace,  to  kindle  up  and  live 
and  send  out  rays  of  light  and  heat  in  all  directions, 
scattering  a  benign  warmth  and  radiance  on  all  sur- 
rounding objects;  for  the  quickening  power  of  fire,  while 
it  acts  first  on  the  substance  itself,  making  it  alive  and 
glowing,  never  stops  there.  From  the  very  nature  of  fire 
it  cannot  remain  where  it  is  generated — it  must  give 
itself  out.  It  is  the  very  law  of  its  being  to  scatter  itself 
in  all  directions.  We  can  confine  earth  in  a  vessel  with- 
out any  difficulty.  With  some  difficulty  we  can  confine 
water,  making  the  vessel  water-tight.  With  greater  dif- 
ficulty we  can  confine  air,  making  the  vessel  air-tight. 


150         ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF   THE   SPIEIT. 

Bat  we  cannot  confine  fire.  That  same  penetrating  power, 
by  wbich  it  searches  its  way  deep  into  the  hidden  struc- 
ture of  that  which  is  exposed  to  its  action,  enables  it  to 
search  its  way  out,  so  that,  however  walled  in,  with  iron, 
for  instance,  your  fire  may  be,  as  in  a  close  stove,  it  must 
out  in  all  directions,  and  so  it  forces  itself  through  the 
pores  of  the  iron  and  radiates  heat  through  all  the  room. 
But  are  there  not  fire-proof  materials  ?  No  doubt  there 
are  ;  and  these  materials  may  be  so  adjusted,  as  in  a  safe, 
as  to  keep  fire  out  ;  but  no  safe  ever  has  been  made,  or 
could  be  made,  that  would  keep  fire  in.  Shut  it  in, 
give  it  no  outlet,  and  presently  there  is  none  of  it — as 
soon  as  you  confine  it,  it  dies.  So  is  it  with  the  fire  of 
Heaven  ;  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that  many  a  soul, 
which  has  had  its  early  fires  of  love  and  devotion  repressed 
by  conventional  usages  warranted  fire-proof,  has  had  the 
fire  first  burn  low,  and  then  lower  and  lower  till  it  went 
quite  out.  It  comes  to  this,  then,  that  this  quickening 
fire  'will  find  an  outlet  to  warm  and  quicken  others,  or  it 
will  die.  In  dealing  with  the  symbol  of  water,  we  found 
it  quite  possible  for  the  Christian  to  drink  himself,  with- 
out being  a  fountain  to  quench  the  thirst  of  others.  But 
this  is  not  possible  in  the  baptism  of  fire.  The  blessing 
comes  first,  like  the  other,  as  a  personal  blessing  ;  but  it 
cannot  stop  there  ;  from  the  very  nature  of  it,  it  is  expan- 
sive, scattering  light  and  heat,  carrying  life  and  blessing 
to  all  with  whom  the  fire  life  is  brought  into  contact. 

Here,  again,  there  is  not  only  the  irrepressibility  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking,  but  there  is  far  greater 
energy.  Water  flows  down  for  the  most  part  gently  and 
quietly,  but  see  how  the  light  flashes  and  the  fire  spreads  ! 
"Water  flows  wherever  there  is  a  channel  for  it,  but  light 
and  fire  ask  no  prepared  channels,  no  beaten  track  to 
travel  on ;   they  make  a  track  for  themselves   anywhere. 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  I  5  I 

everywhere,  leap  over  obstacles,  or  clear  them  away,  and 
make  their  power  felt  iu  all  directions  up  and  across  and 
athwart,  as  well  as  down.  Such  was  the  power  of  the 
little  church  of  one  liundred  and  twenty  members  on  the 
occasion  of  the  first  baptism  by  fire.  Such  has  been  the 
power  of  Christians  and  of  churches  whenever  the  promise 
has  been  welcomed  and  its  fulfilment  realised — a  promise, 
be  it  remembered,  which  is  as  good  now  as  it  ever  was  : 
"  The  promise  is  to  you  and  to  your  children,  and  to 
them  that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our 
God  shall  call." 

And  yet  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that  only  a  very 
few  look  for  the  fulfilment  of  it,  only  a  very  few  expect 
or  receive  the  baptism  of  fire.  It  is  to  be  thankfully 
acknowledged  that  the  promise  of  the  flowing  waters 
is  largely  realised  and  fulfilled.  It  was  not  always  so. 
A  century  ago,  while  there  were  not  a  few  who  quenched 
their  own  thirst  at  the  fountain-head,  there  was  very 
little  accomplished  in  the  way  of  sending  streams  out 
from  the  Church  to  fertilise  the  wastes  around.  But 
now  it  is  generally  understood  that  churches  and  con- 
gregations of  Christians  exist  not  only  for  their  own 
salvation  and  edification,  but  for  spreading  the  Gospel 
around  them.  There  are  channels  of  work  carefully 
made,  and  in  these  channels  the  living  streams  do  flow, 
"We  have  our  Sunday-school  work,  and  our  mission  work, 
and  our  open-air  preaching,  and  our  tract-distributing, 
and  so  on,  and  along  these  and  similar  channels  flow 
many  life-giving  streams.  But  it  is  greatly  to  be 
feared  that  we  know  almost  nothing  of  the  baptism  of 
fire.  Many  Christians  seem  scarcely  ever  to  think  of 
such  a  thing,  and  some  would  shrink  from  it  as  almost 
a  calamity.  To  have  anything  so  startling  would  seem 
quite  out  of  keeping  with  that  qni?t  and  even  tenor  of 


152         ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT. 

our  way  wliicli  seems  so  proper  aud  becoming.  We  do 
not  for  a  moment  mean  to  say  that  there  is  no  light 
and  no  warmth.  God  forbid !  That  would  mean  utter 
death.  There  is  light  and  there  is  heat  diffused  all 
through  the  Church,  as  light  and  heat  are  diffused  in  the 
atmosphere  on  a  bright  summer  day,  and  in  fact  even  on 
a  cloudy  winter  day ;  but  what  we  do  mean  to  say  is,  that 
there  is  very  little  of  that  powerful  and  concentrated  light 
and  heat  which  makes  fire,  which  not  only  warms  but 
kindles.  Even  the  heat  of  August  will  not  kindle  the 
best  set  fire.  It  needs  the  touch  o^  flame  to  set  it  going. 
Only  fire  can  kindle  fire  in  common  coal  or  common  clay. 
Think  for  a  moment  how  many  fireplaces  there  are 
around  us,  and  in  the  midst  of  us,  too — in  the  midst  of 
our  Christian  communities  and  congregations — how  many 
fireplaces,  with  fires  well  laid,  fuel  all  ready,  plenty  of 
Christian  ideas  and  knowledge  lying  there  in  the  minds 
of  our  young  people  and  of  many  who  are  no  longer  young, 
but  lying  cold  and  dead,  wanting  the  touch  of  fire — not 
the  mere  general  warmth  of  a  Christian  atmosphere,  but 
the  hot  touch  of  flame,  which  can  come  only  from  a  heart 
baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire  !  Now,  even  if 
we  did  not  want  the  baptism  of  fire  for  ourselves,  if  we 
were  content  to  float  along  in  the  accustomed  channels  of 
our  life,  without  any  sparkle  or  glow  or  flame  of  Christian 
joy  to  gladden  our  course,  should  we  not  earnestly  desire 
that  we  had  just  a  little  fire  to  apply  to  these  cold  fire- 
places ?  Do  not  we  parents,  who  are  mourning  that  our 
children  are  so  cold  in  things  spiritual,  long  for  just  a 
little  of  this  baptism  of  fire  on  ourselves,  that  we  might 
be  able  to  touch  their  lives  with  the  heavenly  spark  ? 
Do  not  Sunday-school  teachers  long  for  it,  or  for  more 
of  it  ?  Do  we  not  all  desire  to  have  some  share  in  this 
blessed  work  of  kindling  the  flame  of  heavenly  love  in 


ELEMENTAL    EMBLEMS    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  I  $3 

liiiman  liearts  ?  If  only  we  ■would  all  take  to  ourselves 
this  promise  and  make  it  our  own,  waiting  for  its  ful- 
filment as  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  did  daring 
those  ten  days,  what  a  change  there  would  be  !  What  a 
blessed  summer-time  !  What  a  glow  of  true  devotion 
and  warm  brotherly  love,  and  here  and  there  and  every- 
where what  flashes  of  light  and  gleamings  of  flame  and 
kindlings  of  fuel  !  And  presently  our  neighbours  would 
feel  it,  our  churches  would  feel  it,  other  cliurches  would 
feel  it ;  and  who  can  tell  how  far  the  warmth  would 
spread  and  the  light  would  shine  ?  We  were  impressed 
as  we  thought  of  the  grand  possibilities  there  are  for 
Christians  and  the  Church,  in  view  of  the  promise  of 
the  Spirit  under  the  symbol  of  water ;  but  they  are 
grander  still,  especially  as  regards  the  prospect  of  speedy 
results  as  we  think  of  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  under 
the  symbol  of  fire.  It  takes  time,  long  time,  for  the  tiny 
stream  to  grow  into  an  Amazon  ;  but  "  see  how  great  a 
matter  a  little  fire  kindleth  !  "  It  takes  very  little  time 
to  produce  great  results  with  fire.  We  all  know  it  as 
regards  the  destructive  energy  of  earthly  fire ;  it  is 
equally  true  of  the  blessed  energy  of  the  fire  that  comes 
from  Heaven.  How  important,  then,  that  the  Church 
should  welcome  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  in  all  the 
fulness  of  life-giving  power,  which  is  within  her  reach 
in  this  "  dispensation  of  the  Spirit !  " 

Welcome,  Blessed  Spirit,  in  all  the  fulness  of  Thy 
grace,  and  love,  and  power  ;  come  as  the  wind  to  revive 
us — as  water  to  cleanse  and  refresh  us,  and  flow  through 
us  as  channels  of  grace  to  others — as  fire,  to  purify 
us  in  the  inmost  recesses  of  our  souls,  to  quicken  us  to 
a  warmer  and  brighter  life,  and  to  give  us  the  blessed 
power  of  kindling  life  all  round  about  us.  "  Come, 
Holy  S|)irit,  come  !  " 


XI. 

THE  DEMONSTRATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

T^HERE  are  none  of  the  heathen  philosophers  whose 
writings  come  nearer  to  the  morality  of  the  New 
Testament  than  those  of  Seneca.  Seneca  was  a  con- 
temporary of  the  Apostle  Paul.  He  must  have  been 
born  about  the  same  time,  though  we  do  not  know  the 
precise  date  in  either  case.  While  the  youth  Seneca  was 
studying  under  Attalus,  the  Stoic,  at  Rome,  the  young 
Saul  of  Tarsus  was  "  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel "  at 
Jerusalem.  At  about  the  same  time  that  Saul's  conversion 
severed  hira  I'rom  all  his  former  associates,  and  ushered 
him  into  a  life  of  hardship  and  vicissitude,  the  rising 
fame  of  Seneca  for  philosophic  virtue  alienated  from  him 
the  corrupt  Court  at  Rome,  and  led  the  way  to  many 
hardships  and  sufferings.  During  the  quarter  of  a  century 
which  followed,  the  parallel  sadly  fails  ;  for,  while  the  path 
of  the  Apostle  was  like  "the  shining  light  that  shineth 
more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day,"  the  path  of  the 
philosopher  was  tortuous  and  dark.  His  philosophy  de- 
serted him  in  the  hour  of  need ;  he  became  wretched  in 
banishment ;  and  when  restored  again  to  Court  favour 
on  the  accession  of  Nero,  he  disgraced  himself  by  apolo- 
gising for  some  of  that  monster's  most  atrocious  crimes. 
And  yet,  at  the  close,  the  parallel  almost  reappears,  for 
not  only  did  both  fall  about  the  same  time  by  the  fury 
of  the  same  tyrant,  but  there  was  a  heroism  about  the 


THE  DEiMONSTEATION    OF    THE    SPIPJT.  1 55 

death  of  Seneca,  when  the  worst  came  to  the  worst,  that, 
in  the  view  of  his  admirers,  atones  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent for  the  weakness  and  even  wickedness  of  his  life,  and 
gives  some  ground  for  placing  him,  in  his  death  as  well 
as  in  much  of  his  life  and  his  writings,  alongside  of  the 
great  Apostle.  It  seems  certain  that  St.  Paul  and  Seneca 
never  met,  though  both  may  have  been  at  Rome  in  the 
year  6i  or  62  ;  but,  though  their  paths  did  not  cross, 
we  have  an  interesting  link  of  historical  connection  in 
the  fact  that  on  one  occasion  the  Apostle  was  summarily 
dragged  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Seneca's  brother 
Gallio,  the  pro-consul  of  Achaia,  an  incident  related  in 
the  1 8th  chapter  of  the  Acts.  It  is  just  possible  that 
Seneca  may  have  heard  St.  Paul's  name  mentioned  by  his 
brother  Gallio ;  but  if  he  did,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  he 
would  regard  him  with  indifference  or  contempt,  as  Gallio 
himself  evidently  did.  There  seems,  at  all  events,  no 
reason  whatever  to  imagine  for  a  moment  that  the  philo- 
sopher was  indebted  to  the  Apostle  for  the  sound  philosophy 
and  lofty  morality  which  have  made  his  writings  so  de- 
servedly famous. 

We  have  had  a  historical  parallel ;  let  us  now  offer  a 
historical  problem  founded  upon  it.  The  life  of  Seneca 
was  strangely  parallel  with  the  life  of  St.  Paul;  the  words 
of  Seneca  are  strangely  similar  to  the  words  of  the  Apostle. 
How  comes  it,  then,  that  the  words  of  Seneca  fell  power- 
less even  on  the  Roman  people,  and  are  now  read  only 
by  a  very  few  scholars  and  antiquarians,  while  the  words 
of  St.  Paul  have  stirred  every  community  they  have  reached, 
have  been  translated  into  nearly  all  the  languages  of  the 
earth,  and  have  bi'ought  instruction,  and  comfort,  and 
moral  strength, — have  brought  light,  and  hope,  and  joy, 
— to  millions  of  human  lives  ?  It  is  the  fashion,  in  some 
quarters,  to  assert  or  insinuate  that  the  morality  of  Seneca 


156         THE   DEMONSTRATION    OF    THE    SPIEIT. 

was  little,  if  at  all,  inferior  to  the  morality  of  St.  Paul, 
or  even  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself;  and  this  is  trium- 
phantly brought  forward  as  telling  against  the  divine 
claim  of  Christianity.  There  are  Christians,  too,  who 
weakly  tremble  when  such  comparisons  are  made,  and 
think  it  a  serious  thing  for  the  Bible  that  heathen  philo- 
sophy can  be  shown  even  to  approach  it.  But  look  at  it, 
— look  at  it, — and  it  will  appear  that  in  this  very  com- 
parison lies  a  proof  of  the  strongest  kind  that  Christianity 
must  be  of  God.  If  it  could  be  shown  that  the  morality 
of  the  New  Testament  was  a  thousand  times  better  than 
that  of  the  noblest  and  best  of  the  heathen  moralists,  this 
difference  would  at  once  be  seized  upon  as  sufficiently 
accounting  for  the  peculiar  power  of  Christianity  ;  and 
so  there  would  be  some  colour  for  the  cry,  "  What  we 
want  is  a  pure  morality ;  give  us  morality,  by  all  means, 
— more  and  more  of  it, — but  away  Avith  your  useless 
divinity ;  away  with  the  superstition  about  the  super- 
natural." But  with  the  pages  before  us  of  such  men  as 
Socrates,  and  Plato,  and  Zeno,  and  Seneca,  and  Epictetus, 
and  Marcus  Aurelius,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  difference 
between  the  power  of  the  moralists  and  the  power  of  the 
Christians  is  accounted  for  simply  by  the  superiority  of  the 
ethics  of  the  latter.  The  reason  must  be  sought  elsewhere  ; 
and  the  question  is,  Where  ?  Where  else  can  it  be  found 
than  in  the  claim  of  the  Apostle  himself:  "  My  speech 
and  my  preaching  was  not  with  enticing  words  of  man's 
wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power  ; 
that  3'our  faith  should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men, 
but  in  the  power  of  Gogl  "  ?  In  other  words,  the  peculiar 
power  on  which  the  Apostle  relied  for  the  success  of  his 
words  was  not  the  morality  of  them,  but  the  divinity  of 
them.  So  far  as  "  the  wisdom  of  men"  was  concerned, 
there  was  little  more  reason  why  they  should  do  great 


THE   DEMONSTEATION    OF    THE   SPIRIT.  1 5/ 

tilings  for  the  world  than  there  was  that  the  words  of 
Seneca  should  ;  but  "  the  jpower  of  God," — tliere  was  the 
hope,  and  there  we  find  the  only  reasonable  explanation 
of  the  wonderful  historical  phenomenon  at  which  we  have 
been  looking. 

In  one  of  his  Epistles  St.  Paul  writes :  "  We  have  this 
treasure  in  earthen  vessels,  that  the  excellency  of  the 
power  may  be  of  God,  and  not  of  us."  If  "  an  angel 
from  heaven "  had  been  sent  to  preach  the  Gospel,  the 
power  of  it  might  have  been  credited  to  the  angel ;  but 
when  a  weak  man  does  it,  and  results  follow,  as  sometimes 
they  do,  which  make  even  infidels  amazed,  then  the 
obvious  inadequacy  of  the  instrument  makes  it  manifest 
to  those  who  have  intelligence  enough  to  appreciate  the 
conclusion,  that  "  the  excellency  of  the  power  "  must  be 
"  of  God."  There  may  be  those  of  our  readers  who  can 
remember  the  time  when  they  were  distressed  that  the 
Bible  had  not  come  to  us  in  what  seemed  a  state  of  ideal 
perfection,  Avithout  anything  in  it,  from  beginning  to  end, 
that  was  not  clear  as  a  sunbeam,  and  as  free  from  possible 
objections  as  it  was  conceivable  that  it  should  be  ;  but 
who  now  perceive  that  they  were  entirely  wrong.  If  this 
book  had  been  any  further  set  apart  from  other  books 
than  it  is,  men  would  have  said,  "  The  excellency  is  in 
the  Book,  and  what  wonderful  geniuses  these  men  that 
wrote  it  must  have  been ;  "  and  the  names  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  and  the  rest  of  them  would  have  stood  hio-her  in 
the  roll  of  the  world's  great  ones  than  those  of  Plato,  or 
Seneca,  or  Dante,  or  Shakspeare.  It  would  have  seemed 
that  all  the  superiority  lay  in  the  words,  and  so  the 
authors  of  the  words  would  have  been  almost  deified. 
Bat  coming  to  us  as  it  has  come,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
show  that  the  words  are  not  so  much  superior  after  all, — 
that,  so  far  as  ''  the  wisdom  of  men  "  is  concerned,  it  is 


158         THE   DEMOXSTEATIOX    OF    THE    SPIRIT. 

not  so  very  mucli  loftier  than  tlie  productions  of  earth's 
noblest,  and  wisest,  and  best ;  it  becomes  plain  that  the 
secret  of  its  virtue  and  value  is  to  be  sought,  not  in  the 
words,  but  in  the  wondrous  power  behind  the  words, — 
not  in  "  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God." 

Let  us,  by  all  means,  hail  the  comparisons  which  are 
so  frequently  made  between  the  morality  of  the  Bible  and 
that  of  the  Rig-veda,  or  the  Zend  Avesta,  or  the  Stoic 
philosophy,  or  the  Eddas  of  our  own  forefathers.  These 
comparisons  are  not  always  fairly  made.  A  few  brilliant 
specimens  will  be  picked  out  of  heaps  of  rubbish,  and 
presented  as  a  sample  of  the  whole.  After  all  the  energy 
shown  in  collectiug  these  pearls  of  heathen  philosophy 
and  morality,  the  Bible  still  towers  manifestly  above  the 
highest  and  best  of  them,  but  yet  not  so  much  as  to  give 
colour  to  the  idea  that  the  snperior  wisdom  of  its  words 
supplies  the  secret  of  its  power.  We  may  well  be  satis- 
fied to  find  such  possibility  of  comparison  with  the  writ- 
ings of  moralists  as  to  make  it  perfectly  plain  that  the 
power  of  it  cannot  lie  in  its  morality,  but  must  be  sought 
where  Christ  Himself,  and  His  apostles,  and  all  who 
have  any  experimental  acquaintance  with  it,  unanimously 
declare  it  to  be  found,  namely,  in  its  divinity. 

A  little  reflection  will  show  that  it  is  not  morality 
that  men  want,  but  divinity  ;  by  which  is  not  meant  theo- 
logy ;  for  theology,  as  it  is  commonly  understood,  is  only  a 
matter  of  words ;  and  the  whole  drift  of  our  reasoning  is 
to  show  the  comparative  worthlessness  of  words  in  them- 
selves. Not  theology,  then,  but  Divine  Power  is  what 
men  want.  A  distinguished  opponent  of  Christianity  is 
reported  to  have  said,  "  If  a  man  live  only  half  as  well  as 
he  knows  how  in  this  world,  he  will  be  all  right  in  the 
next."  If  this  was  intended  for  a  sober  assurance  that 
when  men  give  an  account  of  themselves  to  God,  on  the 


THE   DEMONSTEATION'    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  1 59 

great  day  of  reckoning,  the  rate  of  ten  sliillings  in  the 
pound  will  be  considered  ample,  we  should  be  disposed  to 
ask  by  what  authority  it  is  said,  seeing  that  conscience 
and  the  Bible,  the  only  witnesses  of  any  respectability 
that  even  claim  to  speak  authoritatively  for  God,  agree  in 
demanding  that  we  live  altogether  np  to  the  light  we 
have,  and  not  merely  half  way.  But,  taking  it  not  as  a 
sober  assurance,  but  as  a  jeu  d'esprit,  attention  may  be 
called  to  the  underlying  fact,  which  gives  it  the  little 
piquancy  it  has,  that  as  a  general  thing  men  do  not  live 
even  "  half  as  well  as  they  know  how  ;  "  from  which  the 
inference  is  inevitable,  that  what  men  want  to  elevate  and 
improve  them  is  not  more  light,  of  which  it  would  seem 
they  have  already  twice  as  much  as  they  use,  but 
some  power  to  enable  them  to  do  what  they  are  not  will- 
ing to  do — some  power  to  persuade  them  to  live  "  as 
well  as  they  know  how."  Just  herein  lies  the  essential 
weakness  of  moral  lectures,  or  essays,  or  preachments ; 
not  that  moralising  is  not  a  good  thing, — it  is  a  very 
cfood  thin  Of — but  it  is  not  the  thino^  men  need.  What  a 
drunkard  needs  is,  not  a  lecture  on  the  evils  of  drunken- 
ness, and  the  eternal  fitness  of  sobriety,  but  some  power 
to  enable  him  to  stop  drinking.  What  a  dishonest  man 
needs  is,  not  to  be  convinced  that  dishonesty  is  wicked, 
and  that  "an  honest  man  is  the  noblest  work  of  God ;  " 
that  he  knows  as  well  as  any  one  else ;  he  needs  some- 
thing to  prevail  tipon  him  to  stop  stealing  and  cheating. 
And  so  with  all  other  crimes  and  sins.  There  are  cases, 
indeed,  in  which  conscience  needs  to  be  enlightened  ;  but 
for  one  case  where  enlightenment  is  required  there  are 
thousands  where  impelling  or  restraining  power  is  the 
one  thing  needful.  The  difference  between  Seneca  and 
St.  Paul  was  just  this,  that  one  came  with  the  wisdom  of 
words,    which    men    scarcely   needed    at   all ;    the    other 


l60         THE   DEMONSTRATION    OF    THE   SPIRIT. 

came  with  "  the  power  of  God,"  which  men  needed  above 
all. 

Wliy  do  not  the  admirers  of  the  Stoic  philosophy- 
scatter  its  noble  monuments  of  lofty  morality  amongst 
the  common  people  ?  Why  have  we  not  a  million  or  two 
of  Stoic  tracts  distributed  among  the  criminal  classes 
of  our  great  city  populations  ?  Might  not  a  little  Stoic 
Bible  be  compiled,  and  a  new  Bible  Society  formed  to 
scatter  it  abroad  ?  We  should  have  no  reason  to  object. 
It  would  certainly  do  no  harm.  The  question,  of  course, 
remains  whether  it  would  do  any  good.  It  may  be  here 
asked,  however,  quite  appropriately,  "  Is  not  your  Bible 
often  just  as  innocent  of  results  as  a  Stoic  Bible  could  be  ? 
Are  there  not  thousands  of  people  who  read  it,  and  do  not 
seem  one  whit  the  better  for  it  ?"  Most  true  indeed  ;  but  in 
this  way  you  only  give  a  further  illustration  of  our  point. 
The  words  of  the  Bible  are  no  better  than  other  good 
words  ;  and  those  who  do  not  get  beyond  the  words  might 
almost  as  well  be  reading  Seneca,  or  Epictetus,  or  any 
other  good  man.  This  is  just  what  Christians  always  say, 
because  it  is  what  the  Bible  itself  says.  "  It  is  the  Spirit 
that  quickeneth."  He  uses  the  Word  as  His  instrument ; 
but  the  instrument  is  powerless  without  the  Agent.  "  My 
speech  and  my  preaching,"  says  our  Apostle,  "  was  in 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit."  To  illustrate  this  point 
take  the  words,  "  Come  unto  Me,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest ;  "  or  the  words,  "  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee  ;  go  in 
peace  ;  "  or  these,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
His  righteousness ;  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you."  Whose  words  are  they,  and  to  whom  are 
they  spoken  ?  For  some  people  the  answer  would  have 
to  be,  "  They  are  the  words  of  a  man  whom  we  never 
saw,  and  who  cannot  know  us,  inasmuch  as  He  died 
centuries  ago ;  and  they  were  spoken  to  people  we  never 


THE   DEMONSTEATION    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  l6l 

saw,  and  of  whom,  therefore,  we  know  nothing,  and  about 
whom  we  care  little."  In  such  a  case  it  is  unreasonable 
to  expect  that  these  words  should  have  any  power.  But 
there  are  those  who  have  a  very  different  answer  to  give  ; 
for  each  of  them  would  say,  "  These  are  the  words  of  God, 
and  they  are  spoken  to  me :  I  know  it,  because  the  Spirit 
of  God  has  taken  these  things  and  shown  them  to  me : 
I  cannot  explain  how  He  did  it ;  there  are  few  things  I 
can  explain,  and  therefore  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
I  cannot  explain  this  ;  but  somehow  or  other  He  has  done 
it;  and  now  I  know  that  these  words  are  God's  words  to 
me,  and  the  result  of  it  is  that  I  have  found  rest,  and  the 
joy  of  forgiveness ;  and  Avhereas  once  the  world  was  as 
much  to  me  as  it  was  to  any  one  else,  it  is  so  no  longer  ; 
I  do  '  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  His  righteous- 
ness,' and  I  find  that  other  things  are  added  to  me  accord- 
ing to  the  pi'omise." 

The  real  difference  between  the  Christian  and  the 
non-Christian  is,  not  that  some  wise  words  have  reached 
the  one  which  have  not  reached  the  other,  but  that 
God  has  reached  the  one  and  not  the  other.  God  has 
been  revealed  to  the  conscience,  so  that  it  has  become 
quick  and  sensitive  to  sins  against  God,  as  well  as  sins 
against  men ;  and  God  has  been  revealed  to  the  heart,  in 
such  a  way  that  he  has  been  constrained  to  say,  "  Whom 
have  I  in  heaven  but  Thee,  0  Lord  ?  And  there  is  none 
in  all  the  earth  whom  I  desire  beside  Thee."  It  was  not 
the  words  of  the  Bible  that  converted  him,  but  the  God 
of  the  Bible.  And  all  those  who  will  only  allow  the  God 
of  the  Bible  to  do  the  same  for  them, — will  only  allow 
Him  to  have  free  access  to  their  conscience  and  their 
heart, — will  discover  what  it  is  to  enjoy  "  the  peace  of 
God,  that  passeth  all  understanding,"  and  to  realise  a  " 
moral  and  spiritual  strength  to  which  they  were  strangers 

L 


1 62         THE   DEMONSTHATION    OF    THE    SPIRIT. 

before, — will  know  wliat  it  is  to  feel  the  constraining 
power  of  heavenly  love,  gradually  separating  tliem  from 
worldliness  and  sin,  and  leading  tliem  up,  step  by  step, 
into  a  higher  and  purer  air,  with  a  far  wider  horizon 
around  them,  and  an  infinitely  grander  prospect  before 
them. 

The  power  of  God  can  reach  no  one  without  his  con- 
sent ;  for  personal  freedom  is,  and  ever  must  be,  a  sacred 
thing ;  hence  one  reason  why  faith  is  necessary.  Faith 
is  the  free  and  willing  surrender  of  the  heart  and 
conscience  to  God  as  He  is  made  known  in  Jesus 
Christ ;  and,  as  soon  as  this  surrender  is  made,  there  will 
be  the  consciousness  of  a  mighty  change.  The  con- 
science will  be  much  more  sensitive,  the  heart  more 
tender,  the  will  more  commanding ;  the  tastes  will 
become  purer,  the  aspirations  loftier,  the  aims  nobler, 
the  hopes  infinitely  brighter ;  and  so  great  will  be  the 
change,  that  the  subjects  of  it  will  be  fully  convinced 
that  no  mere  words  could  have  brought  it  about, — that  the 
words  of  St.  Paul  were  as  little  adequate  for  the  purpose  as 
the  words  of  Seneca  could  have  been, — that,  in  fact,  it 
was  due  to  the  "  demonstration  of  the  Spirit,"  to  the  power 
of  God  Himself. 

The  "  demonstration  of  the  Spirit ;  "  that  is  the  kind  of 
demonstration  that  men  need.  Some  people  wonder  that 
more  is  not  made  of  the  demonstration  of  the  intellect. 
If  the  evidences  of  Christianity  are  so  thoroughly  satis- 
factory as  they  are  said  to  be,  why  not  keep  at  that  ? 
Why  not  bring  forth  arguments,  and  answer  objections, 
until  men  are  convinced  ?  The  answer  is  precisely  the 
same  as  to  those  who  object  that  the  principal  place  is 
not  given  to  morality.  Morality  is  good,  and  evidences 
are  good  ;  and  it  is  well  that  their  place  should  be  given 
them  in   public  teaching;   but  neither  the  one  nor  the 


THE   DEMONSTRATION    OF    THE   SPIRIT.  1 63 

other  is  what  men  most  need.  It  is  not  more  ligfht  for 
the  intellect  that  is  wanted  most ;  it  is  Divine  power 
on  the  conscience  and  the  heart ;  and  this  power  is 
not  to  be  had  in  "the  wisdom  of  men,"  even  when 
employed  in  making-  arguments  and  overthrowing  objec- 
tions. There  is  light  in  the  evidences.  Let  any  one  care- 
fully and  earnestly  study  them,  and  he  will  find  that 
there  is  light.  But,  alone,  it  is  like  the  sunlight  in 
winter — beautiful,  it  may  be,  and  clear,  but  fruitless, 
perhaps  frosty.  Sncli  is  the  light  of  the  intellect 
alone.  The  sun  may  shine  as  brightly  in  December  as 
it  did  in  June ;  but  it  has  no  longer  the  power  it 
then  had  to  put  life  into  dead  nature,  to  bring  out  the 
verdure  of  the  leaf,  the  beauty  of  the  flower,  the  richness 
of  the  fruit.  Why  the  difference  ?  Simply  this,  that 
the  pole  of  our  northern  hemisphere  is  then  turned  away 
from  the  sun,  and  his  rays,  though  bright  as  ever,  fall  so 
obliquely  on  the  surface  of  the  ground  as  scarcely  to  affect 
it ;  they  do  not  go  down  into  it  to  warm  its  bosom. 
And  so,  too,  as  long  as  the  pole  of  the  human  conscience 
is  turned  away  from  God,  even  truth  itself,  shining  ever 
so  clearly,  will  fail  to  arrest  the  advance  of  approaching 
winter.  If  the  man  would  only  turn  to  the  Lord,  then 
the  power  of  the  truth  would  reach  the  conscience,  the 
love  of  the  truth  would  reach  the  heart,  there  would  be 
warmth  as  well  as  light,  spring  would  be  around  him,  and 
summer  at  hand. 

"  In  Hira  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men." 
Observe  the  order :  in  Him,  life ;  that  life,  the  light. 
Those  who  believe  in  Him  shall  live,  and  in  their  new 
life  will  find  a  better  and  brighter  li^ht  than  all  the 
powers  of  the  intellect,  or  the  resources  of  the  evidences 
addressed  to  the  intellect, can  furnish.  The  "demonstra- 
tion of  the  Spirit  "  is  by  far  the  best.    It  can  stand  all  kinds 


164         THE    DEMONSTRATION    OF    THE   SPIRIT. 

of  objections,  as  is  most  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  case 
of  the  man  blind  from  his  birth  whom  the  Saviour  cured, 
and  who,  to  all  questions  and  cavils  had  one  unanswer- 
able reply,  "  Whether  the  man  be  a  sinner  or  no,  I  know 
not ;  one  thing  I  know,  that,  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I 
see."  Finally,  this  "  demonstration  "  is  within  the  reach 
of  all.  It  only  requires  hearty  willingness,  cordial  consent, 
true  and  earnest  desire.  "  For  if  ye,  being  evil,  know 
how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much 
more  shall  your  Heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask  H,im  ?  " 


XII. 

THE  VITALITY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

{A  Speech  delivered  at  the  Eightieth  Anniversary  of  the  Bible  Society.) 

T  WAS  reading  a  little  while  ago  in  one  of  our  high-class 
reviews  an  article  by  an  exceedingly  able  writer,  in 
which  he  made  a  most  important  statement.  He  made 
it  so  confidently  in  the  name  of  the  thinking  people  of  the 
pL-esent  day  that  there  surely  must  be  something  in  it, 
and  yet  it  has  seemed  to  me  to  be  quite  irreconcilable, 
by  any  logical  process  I  can  think  of,  with  the  facts 
of  this  Report.  The  statement  was  to  the  effect  that 
Bible  Christianity  was,  at  the  time  of  writing,  in  the  very 
article  of  death.  That  was  a  good  many  weeks  ago,  and 
so  I  suppose  it  must  bo  quite  dead  by  this  time.  Now, 
I  am  perfectly  aware  that  this  is  not  the  first  or  the 
second  or  the  hundredth  time  that  wise  and  learned  men 
have  told  us  that  the  Bible  was  dying  or  dead,  but  this 
distinguished  writer  had  actually  seen  the  grave-clothes 
in  which  it  was  to  be  buried,  so  there  could  be  no  mis- 
take about  it  this  time.  Many  of  you  may  not  have 
heard  of  this  before,  but  that  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for 
the  same  distinguished  Avriter  speaks  with  great  contempt 
of  Exeter  Hall  and  of  all  the  people  who  go  there  !  You 
will  not  wonder,  then,  that  one  who  has  read  this  able 
article  should  be  in  a  difficulty,  and  expect  to  hear  to-day 
of  diminished  sales  and  decreasing  income,  and  the  ap- 
proaching collapse  of  the  Bible  Society,  and  to  find  one 


1 66  THE    VITALITY    OF    THE    BIBLE. 

of  tlie  resolutions  a  motion  to   go  into  liquidation.      But 
I  have  looked  over  the  whole  paper  and  can  find  no  such 
motion.      On  the    contrary,   we   are    told    of  largely  in- 
creased sales,  finances  advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and 
everything  brisk  and  buoyant  and  hopeful.       There  must 
be  some  mistake  somewhere.      It  surely  cannot  be  with 
the  distinguished  and  able  writer,  considering  the  consti- 
tuency for  which  he  spoke.      It  must,  then,  be  with  the 
stupid  people  of  Exeter  Hall.      And  yet   the  milKons  of 
copies  and  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  !      I  can- 
not exactly  make  out  how  the  stupidity  of  Exeter  Hall 
can  account  for  all  that.      And  then  all  other  business  is 
so  dull,  exceedingly  dull.      I  can  speak  feelingly  on  that 
subject,  for  I  have  been  trying  to  raise  a  little  money  for 
a  church-building  fund,  and  I  have  been  told,  with  what 
may  be  called  a  painful  iteration,  that  business  is  very, 
very  dull.      I   do  not  know  much  about  business,  but  I 
know  enough  to  know  that  when  business  generally  is 
dull,  business  in  books  is  especially  dull,  and  that  those 
who    deal  in  old  books    have    the    dullest    time   of   all. 
Now  I  am  just  coming  to  my  difficulty.       Here  is  a  pub- 
lishing  Society  that  confines  its  operations  to  one  book, 
and  that  book  the  oldest  of  all ;   a  book  with  which  the 
market  is  fairly  glutted,  hundreds  of  millions  having  been 
discharged  into  it ;  a  book,  moreover,   which  we  learn, 
on  excellent  authority,  is  now  quite  dead  ;   and  yet  the 
Society  flourishes  !      It  is  not  running  down,  it  is  running 
up,  and  if  it  were  the  fashion  to  quote  this   sort  of  stock 
in  the   newspapers,  I  fancy  you   would  need  a  stronger 
term  than  "  lively  "  to  indicate  the  vitality  of  it. 

You  see  the  dilemma  I  am  in.  I  am  forced  to  one  of 
two  conclusions — either  we  have  in  all  this  a  veritable 
miracle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  which  I  am  afraid 
our  learned  friend  would  hardly  give   his  assent,  or — I 


THE   VITALITY   OF    THE    BIBLE.  1 6/ 

slirink  from  stating  tlie  alternative,  but  I  must  do  it — the 
statement  cannot  be  quite  correct.  The  Bible  cannot  be 
quite  dead  after  all.  There  must  be  some  life  in  the  old 
book  yet.  Perhaps  it  is  the  same  with  the  Bible  as  with 
some  of  those  who  wrote  it,  who  spoke  of  themselves  in  a 
strange  fashion,  like  this :  "As  dying,  and  behold  we 
live ;  "  "  persecuted,  but  not  forsaken  ;  cast  down,  but  not 
destroyed ;  always  bearing  about  in  our  body  the  dying 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life  also  of  Jesus  might  be 
made  manifest  in  our  mortal  flesh."  And  it  has  occurred 
to  me  that  possibly  our  learned  friend  may  be  somewhat 
like  a  certain  rustic,  whom  the  poet  Horace,  in  a  passage 
exceedingly  well  known  and  often  quoted,  speaks  of  as 
standing  upon  the  bank  of  a  river  and  waiting  till  it 
should  have  flowed  past  and  disappeared  ;  not  considering 
that  as  the  river  had  flowed  on  from  age  to  age  before  he 
was  there,  so  from  age  to  age  it  still  would  flow  on  after 
he  had  vanished  from  the  scene.  Tlie  streams  of  the 
Water  of  Life  are  flowing  still,  and  they  still  will  flow ; 
there  is  no  sign  of  any  slacking  of  the  tide,  for  what  is 
true  of  the  little  brook  is  no  less  true,  but  still  more  true, 
of  this  broad  brimming  river — ■ 

"  Men  maj'  come,  tuid  men  may  go, 
But  I  go  on  for  ever." 

The  constant  and  ever-increasing  demand  for  the  Bible, 
which  is  reflected  in  the  wonderful  history  of  this  noble 
Society,  is  well  worthy  of  consideration,  quite  apart  from 
a  publishing  point  of  view  ;  for  what  does  it  mean  ?  It 
means  that  this  old  Book,  which  it  is  the  work  of  this 
Society  to  circulate,  is  as  young  as  ever — that  it  is  a 
Book  for  the  times  as  much  as  it  ever  was.  No  pub- 
lisher's device  is  needed  to  make  it  pass  off"  as  fresh. 
Sometimes   a  publishing  firm  will  take  care  to   put  no 


1 68  THE    VITALITY    OF    THE   BIBLE. 

date  on  the  preface  of  a  book,  and  no  date  on  the  title- 
page,  and,  perhaps,  will  put  the  word  "  new  "  into  the 
title,  and  stereotype  it  there,  calling  it  a  "  new  "  hand- 
book or  a  "  new  "  novel ;  or  if  they  cannot  get  it  into  the 
title  they  will  call  it  a  new  edition,  in  the  hope  that  as 
years  pass  on  the  public  will  not  too  curiously  inquire 
how  new  it  is,  and  what  was  the  date  of  publicatiou. 
We  need  no  such  devices, — we  do  not  fear  the  age  of 
this  Book.  It  is  hoary  with  antiquity ;  and  yet,  strange 
to  say,  it  has  on  it  the  dew  of  immortal  youth.  Our 
learned  friend  in  the  Eevieiu,  and  those  who  think  like 
him,  of  course  demur  to  this.  In  spite  of  the  patent 
fact  that  its  wonderful  circulation  is  increasing  every 
year,  they  tell  us  it  is  out  of  date.  They  tell  us  that, 
while  it  may  take  an  honoured  place  in  the  literature  of 
antiquity,  which  has  served  its  time,  its  day  is  now  past 
in  the  estimation  of  all  people  of  sufficiently  advanced 
thought.  But  if  you  were  to  press  them  very  closely  for 
the  ground  of  their  belief  it  would  probably  amount  to 
this,  that  not  one  of  all  the  sacred  writers  had  ever  read 
a  line  of  Newton's  "  Principia,"  or  of  Darwin's  "  Origin  of 
Species,"  or  even  of  the  "  First  Principles  "  of  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer.  But  I  submit  that  that  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  question.  There  were,  of  course,  certain  notions 
about  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and  the  things  that  are 
in  them,  which  were  prevalent  at  the  "  sundry  times " 
when  tlie  Scriptures  were  produced — notions  which  had 
no  relation  whatever — good,  bad,  or  indifferent — to  the 
object  with  which  these  Scriptures  were  written,  and 
therefore  those  notions  were  very  properly  left  alone. 
Does  any  one  suppose  that  Christ  would  have  helped 
forward  His  mission  if  He  had  set  Himself  to  correct 
the  astronomy  and  the  physics  of  the  schools  of  Egypt 
and  of  Greece  ?     Why,  He  did  not  even  meddle  with  the 


THE    VITALITY    OF    THE    BIBLE.  l6q 

politics  of  tlie  Roman  empire,  wLicli  very  mucli  more 
nearly  concerned  His  cause ;  and  where  would  liave  been 
the  sense  of  attempting  to  correct  what  was  wrong  in  the 
science  of  the  schools  ?  The  same  consideration  applies 
all  through  the  Bible.  The  one  subject  throughout  is 
God  and  His  salvation ;  the  one  object,  to  save  men  from 
sin  and  bring  them  to  God.  When  things  in  Nature 
are  referred  to,  it  is  in  language  which  the  people  of  the 
time  could  understand.  There  was  no  attempt  to  speak 
over  the  little  heads  of  the  people  of  the  time  to  the  big 
folks  that  live  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  represent  its 
glorious  culture.  And  accordingly,  we  even  read  such 
statements  as  these  :  "  The  sun  ariseth,  and  the  sun  goeth 
down  and  hasteth  to  his  place  where  he  arose,"  though 
every  schoolboy  knows  now  that  the  sun  does  not  arise 
and  does  not  go  down  and  does  not  haste  to  the  place 
where  he  arose.  But  my  difficulty  is,  that  the  almanacs 
are  not  corrected  yet.  If  any  of  you  could  give  me  an 
almanac  for  18S4,  according  to  modern  science,  I  should 
be  glad  to  have  it.  The  Bible  speaks  about  Nature  in  a 
natural  way,  in  a  way  that  would  be  natural  to  the 
people  of  the  time  :  and  that  is  what  all  sensible  people 
do — except  when  they  are  weak  enough  to  try  to  air 
their  learning  a  little ;  and  that  is  what  all  sensible 
people  approve — except  when  they  are  very  badly  off  for 
something  to  say  against  the  Bible. 

There  is  no  pedantry  in  the  Bible,  no  affectation  of 
scientific  accuracy.  Great  principles  are  laid  down,  such 
as  the  duty  and  the  delight  of  searching  out  the  works 
of  God  and  learning  what  they  tell  us  of  Him — principles 
which  in  their  application  have  greatly  tended  to  promote 
scientific  research  and  discovery.  But  there  is  no  attempt 
made,  as  it  is  manifestly  absurd  that  any  attempt  should 
have   been  made,   to   anticipate   these   discoveries.      Re- 


170  THE   VITALITY    OF    THE    BIBLE. 

member  that,  if  this  work  of  settincj  science  rio;lit  had 
been  begun  at  all,  it  must  have  been  gone  through  with. 
Some  people  seem  to  suppose  that,  if  the  Bible  had  only 
been  brought  up  to  the  standard  of  the  ninth  edition  of 
the  "  EncyclopfBuia  Britannica,"  all  would  have  been 
well.  But  no,  that  would  not  meet  the  difficulty; 
because  what  should  we  do  when  the  tenth  edition  came 
out  ?  You  remember  what  Newton  said  about  gathering 
a  few  pebbles  by  the  shore,  while  the  great  ocean  of 
truth  lay  undiscovered  beyond.  There  have  been  a  good 
many  more  pebbles  gathered  since  his  time,  but  still 
there  is  the  great  ocean  of  truth  undiscovered  beyond  ; 
and  so,  you  see,  even  the  whole  of  tlie  present  edition  of 
the  "  Encyclopa9dia  Britannica"  would  not  have  been 
enough;  and  even  that  would  have  been  a  little  cumbrous 
to  carry  about  and  take  to  Sunday-school.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  imagine  what  the  Bible  Society  would  have  done 
if  they  had  had  the  handling  of  that  huge  work ;  it 
would  have  been  worse  than  a  white  elephant.  Think  of 
translating  it  into  250.  languages  !  Oh,  horror!  I  do 
not  think  my  friend  Dr.  Wright  would  undertake  the 
superintending  of  such  a  task.  You  know  the  story  told 
by  Macaulay  about  the  Italian  convict.  When  sentenced, 
the  judge  was  kind  enough  to  give  him  an  alternative  : 
he  told  him  he  might  go  to  the  galleys  or  read  Guicciar- 
dini's  history.  The  man  very  naturally  chose  to  read  the 
histor}'- ;  but  after  he  had  gone  a  certain  distance,  he 
changed  his  mind — it  was  too  hard  for  him,  and  so  he 
left  the  history  and  went  to  the  galleys.  We  should 
have  been  somewhat  in  the  same  condition  if  we  had 
had  the  Bible  that  a  number  of  people  think  we  ought 
to  have  had. 

The  fact  is,  all  this  talk  about  the  Bible  beinsr  out  of 
date  in  matters  of  science  is  so  much  nonsense.      Let  us 


THE    VITALITY    OF    THE    BIBLE.  17I 

have  done  with  it,  and  let  ns  ask  how  the  Bible  stands 
on  its  own  ground.  How  does  it  accomplish  the  object 
which  it  sets  before  it  ?  Is  it  out  of  date  as  a  book  on 
sin,  on  righteousness,  on  salvation  ?  All  other  books 
that  have  been  attempted  on  these  subjects,  except  those 
which  have  drawn  their  inspiration  directly  or  indirectly 
from  the  Scriptures,  were  either  out  of  date  at  the  time 
they  were  first  produced,  or  became  so  in  a  very  few 
years.  The  ethical  and  religious  productions  of  those 
who  made  their  researches  and  recorded  the  results  of 
them  apart  froin  the  Scriptures, — where  are  they?  Where, 
for  example,  are  the  moralists  and  philosophers  of  Greece 
and  Rome  ?  Their  works,  indeed,  are  on  the  shelves  of 
every  scholar  in  Christendom;  but  in  what  capacity  ? 
As  authorities  ?  Not  at  all  ;  simply  as  monuments  of 
genius  and  chapters  of  intellectual  history.  Who  would 
ever  think,  when  considering  the  question,  "  Wherewithal 
shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his  way  ?  "  of  answering  it  by 
saying,  "  By  taking  heed  thereto  according  to  Aristotle's 
'  Nicomachian  Ethics  ! '  "  And  yet  Aristotle's  "  Nico- 
machian  Ethics  "  is  the  very  best  book  ever  produced  on 
the  subject  without  aid  from  revelation.  Who  would  ever 
think  of  expecting  a  soul-satisfying  solution  to  the  pro- 
blem, "If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?"  in  the  "Phsedo" 
of  Plato,  unrivalled  as  it  is  among  the  literature  of 
antiquity  on  the  subject  of  the  soul's  immortality  ?  Is 
there  a  single  Greek  or  Boman  classic  on  the  subject 
of  man's  condition  and  prospects  that  would  be  of  the 
slightest  use  to  a  soul  burdened  with  sin,  or  pressed  with 
the  weight  of  this  most  solemn  of  all  questions :  "  How 
shall  a  man  be  just  with  God  ?  "  Tbey  are  out  of  date — 
cold  monuments  of  genius,  dead  relics  of  antiquity,  almost 
forgotten  attempts  to  sound  the  mysteries  of  life  and 
death.      And  does  any  one   suppose  that  the  new  "Data 


172  THE    VITALITY    OF    THE    BIBLE. 

of  Ethics,"  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  or  the  more  recent 
"  Science  of  Ethics,"  by  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  is  likely  to  be 
the  Sunday-school  book  of  the  next  generation — say  one 
hundred  years  hence — or  to  require  some  monster  society 
to  supply  an  exhaustless  demand  for  it  ?  And  if  those 
who  are  trying  their  hand  in  helping  out  the  Bible,  or  in 
working  along  the  same  lines,  get  so  soon  out  of  date, 
what  shall  we  say  of  those  who  write  and  fight  against 
it  ?  They  go  to  still  swifter  and  darker  oblivion.  Where 
are  the  authorities  of  our  intelligent  sceptical  friends  of 
the  present  day  ?  All  among  writers  of  the  last  few 
years.  And  where  are  all  the  rest,  from  Celsus,  Porphyry, 
and  Julian  downwards  ?  They  are  all  out  of  date.  Most 
of  them  have  disappeared  entirely.  They  have  perhaps 
gone  to  Milton's  limbo,  where  all  vanities  are  said  to  go. 
Where  is  the  sceptical  writer  of  two  thousand  years  ago, 
or  one  thousand,  or  five  hundred,  or  one  hundred,  or 
fifty, — I  am  almost  tempted  to  come  down,  like  Abraham, 
to  ten,  and  to  ask,  Where  is  one  of  them  that  our  sceptical 
friends  will  stand  by,  as  we  stand  by  Moses  and  David,  by 
Matthew  and  Paul  ?  They  are  all  out  of  date,  and  their 
works  are  to  be  found,  if  found  at  all,  amidst  the  dusty, 
decaying,  moth-eaten  relics  of  the  past,  in  the  British 
Museum,  or  on  the  antiquary's  bookshelf.  But  who  will 
venture  to  predict  the  time  when  you  will  have  to  ran- 
sack the  antiquary's  library  to  find  a  copy  of  the  writings 
of  Moses,  David,  Solomon,  Isaiah,  Daniel,  Matthew,  Paul, 
or  John  ?  These  authors  are  all  old,  but  they  are  always 
new.  Old  as  they  are,  their  words  are  as  weighty,  as 
powerful,  and  as  confidently  appealed  to  now  as  ever,  and 
they  are  far  more  widely  read  to-day  than  at  any  previous 
time. 

The  path  of   the   Bible  is  not  like  the  path   of   the 
infidel  production — a  steep  descent  to  dark  oblivion — 


THE    VITALITY    OF    THE    BIBLE.  1 73 

but  it  is  like  tlie  patli  of  those  who  are  justified  by  its 
faith,  which  is  as  "  the  shining  light  which  shineth  more 
and  more  unto  the  perfect  day."  In  some  old  Bible  of 
your  grandfather,  between  the  leaves  which  enclose  some 
cherished  passage  that  had  often  cheered  the  old  man's 
heart,  there  is,  perhaps,  a  little  relic  of  the  past — a  rose 
leaf,  a  sprig  of  heliotrope,  a  forget-me-not.  The  colour 
is  gone,  the  scent  has  evaporated,  even  the  grace  of  form 
is  crushed  out  of  all  recognition.  You  must  touch  it  very 
tenderly,  or  it  will  crumble  into  dust,  and  be  all  gone.  It 
abides,  after  a  fashion,  as  human  things  abide  ;  it  does  not 
live  and  abide  as  divine  things  live  and  abide.  But  the 
promise,  over  against  which  the  little  faded  flower  is  lying, 
not  only  abides,  but  lives — lives  !  It  lives  in  ten  thousand 
hearts  as  well  as  in  yours,  as  rich  in  colour,  as  fresh  in 
fragrance,  as  delightful  to  the  soul  as  ever  it  was.  "All 
flesh  is  grass," — and  even  our  reviewers  come  under  that 
head — "  All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  goodliness  thereof 
is  as  the  flower  of  the  field.  The  grass  withereth,  and 
the  flower  thereof  falleth  away ;  but  the  Word  of  the 
Lord  endureth  for  ever."  The  Word  of  God  is  not  like 
that  of  Demosthenes  or  of  Cicero,  whose  speeches  may 
still  move  to  admiration,  but  can  no  longer  lead  men  on 
to  action  as  in  the  days  when  they  were  fresh  and  strong. 
The  Word  of  God  lives  and  breathes ;  lives  with  the  life 
and  breathes  with  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  of  the  living 
God.  This  is  the  secret  of  its  perennial  freshness  ;  this 
is  the  secret  of  its  immortal  youth.  "  It  is  the  Spirit  that 
quickeneth."  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they 
are  spirit  and  they  are  life."  Of  Homer,  and  Virgil, 
and  Dante,  and  Milton ;  of  Aristotle,  and  Seneca,  and 
Descartes,  and  Bacon ;  of  Demosthenes,  and  Cicero,  and 
Burke — it  may  be  said,  "  he  being  dead,  yet  speaketh  ;  " 
but  of  the  Author  of  the  Bible,  and  of  Him  alone,  it  can 


174  THE   VITALITY    OF    THE    BIBLE. 

be  said,  "  He,  being  alive,  yet  speaketli."  "  The  mighty 
God,  even  the  Lord,  hath  sj)oken."  And  speaketh  still  : 
"  I  am  He  that  doth  speak  ;  behold,  it  is  I."  The  Spirit 
of  God  may  use,  often  does  use,  other  books  ;  but  He 
identifies  Himself  with  the  Bible.  He  makes  it  vocal 
with  His  loving  voice,  and  vital  with  His  living  power. 
He  breathes  through  it  on  the  living  soul,  and  thus  com- 
municates the  life  eternal.  And  so  the  work  of  this 
Society  is  not  that  of  a  mere  publishing  firm.  It  is 
a  great  missionary  work.  This  Society  is  called  of  God 
to  the  grandest  missionary  work — called  of  God  to  send 
forth  His  light  and  His  truth.  His  Word  of  ever- fresh 
and  living  power,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 


XIII. 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE. 

1 V  we  were  asked  for  the  tliouglit  which  is  most  compre- 
hensively characteristic  of  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  present  generation,  we  should  be  inclined  to 
give  for  answer,  "  The  Reign  of  Law."  On  all  sides  the 
domain  of  Law  has  been  extended  until,  in  the  minds  of 
many,  it  bids  fair  to  become  universal  and  absolute.  And 
this  ever-widening  reign  of  Law  is  not  by  any  means 
confined  to  the  domain  of  physics  ;  mind  as  well  as  matter 
is  now  asked  to  bend  beneath  its  yoke.  Men's  opinions 
are  discovered  to  be  not  their  own  opinions  at  all,  but 
simply  the  product  of  certain  intellectual  forces  which 
were  in  operation  before  they  were  born.  They  think  so 
and  so,  they  believe  so  and  so,  just  because  they  happen 
to  liave  been  born  in  such  a  country,  at  such  a  tiine,  and 
in  such  circumstances.  Alter  a  little  the  circumstances, 
or  the  place,  or  the  date  of  their  having  come  into  the 
worldj  and  their  opinions  and  beliefs  will  be  just  so  much, 
or  so  little,  modified.  Alter  any  of  these  things  a  great 
deal,  and  the  difference  will  be  vast.  How  vastly  different 
would  our  ideas  have  been  on  almost  all  subjects  if  we 
had  been  born  in  Siam  or  in  the  interior  of  China ;  and 
how  vastly  different  most  of  them  would  have  been  on 
many  subjects  if  we  had  been  born,  even  in  any  Christian 
land,  two  or  three  centuries  earlier,  or  even  fifty  or  twenty 
years  earlier,  than  we  have  been  ! 


1/6  THE    SPIEIT    OF    THE   AGE. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  denied  that  reason  and  argument 
enter  into  the  case ;  but  it  has  come  to  be  noticed  that 
they  enter  into  it  less  than  is  generally  supposed.  The 
proportion  of  those  who  even  attempt  to  make  a 
thoroughly  independent  investigation  into  the  grounds 
of  their  opinions  is  always  small.  It  is  much  larger 
now,  perhaps,  than  it  has  ever  been  before,  but  even  yet 
it  is  small.  And  then  even  those  wdio  attempt  to  conduct 
a  thoroughly  independent  examination  never  succeed  in 
making  it  independent.  There  is  always  a  bias  on  one 
side  or  another ; — "  on  one  side  or  another,"  we  say  ;  for 
it  is  a  great  mistake  to  imagine  that  the  bias  is  always 
on  the  side  of  what  one  has  been  taught.  When  a  per- 
son has  entered,  or  supposes  that  he  has  entered,  on  an 
independent  examination  of  the  opinions  he  has  learnt 
from  others,  he  is  very  apt  to  come  to  the  investigation 
with  all  sorts  of  prejudices  against  that  which  is  old. 
The  love  of  novelty  may  influence  him  ;  the  love  of  singu- 
larity may  influence  him ;  the  hankering  after  the  merit 
of  originality, — the  ambition  to  be  considered  an  inde- 
pendent thinker, — the  notion  that,  in  diverging  from 
common  ways  of  thinking,  he  is  establishing  a  claim  to 
intellectual  superiority  to  other  people, — motives  of  this 
sort  are  apt  to  have  a  very  powerfully  disturbing  influ- 
ence, adverse  to  the  old,  and  favourable  to  all  kinds  of 
divergences  from  it. 

Further,  independent  investigation  now-a-days  must 
largely  follow  the  course  of  reading.  It  is  obvious  that 
that  man's  opinions  would  be  worth  least  of  all  who 
would  act  the  intellectual  hermit,  and  resolve  to  form 
his  opinions  on  all  subjects  without  reading  a  word  that 
had  ever  been  written  about  them.  No  man  has  such 
a  fount  of  wisdom  in  his  own  mind  that  he  can  afford  to 
ignore  all  the  wisdom  of  other  people.      He  cannot  even 


THE    SPIRIT    OF    THE    AGE.  1 77 

make  himself  master  of  the  needful  facts  without  availing 
himself  of  the  labours  of  others  ;  and  he  cannot  read  up 
even  the  facts  without  getting  the  philosophy  of  the 
men  who  recorded  the  facts  inextricably  mixed  up  with 
them.  In  this  way  a  man  cannot  escape  the  influence  of 
other  minds ;  and  in  course  of  time  it  will  be  found  that 
his  opinions  are  traceable  very  much  more  to  the  course 
of  his  reading  than  to  any  independent  thinking  he  has 
done. 

Now  this  certainly  does  not  look  very  encouraging. 
It  is  not  a  very  attractive  thing  to  be  so  necessarily 
and  absolutely  the  creatures  of  circumstances ;  and  our 
philosophic  friends  who  insist  so  much  upon  it  see  that 
it  is  not  at  all  pleasant.  The  attempt,  accordingly,  is 
sometimes  made  to  get  some  relief;  as  an  illustration 
of  which  we  may  quote  a  passage  from  the  distinguished 
author  of  "  The  Rise  and  Influence  of  Rationalism  in 
Europe  "  : — "  Those  who  have  appreciated  the  extremely 
small  influence  of  definite  arguments  in  determining  the 
opinions  either  of  an  individual  or  of  a  nation, — who  have 
perceived  how  invariably  an  increase  of  civilisation  implies 
a  modification  of  belief,  and  how  completely  the  contro- 
versialists of  successive  ages  are  the  puppets  and  the 
unconscious  exponents  of  the  deep  under-current  of  their 
time, — will  feel  an  intense  distrust  of  their  unassisted 
reason,  and  will  naturally  look  for  some  guide  to  direct 
their  judgment.  I  think  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
general  and  increasing  tendency  in  the  present  day  is  to 
seek  such  a  guide  in  the  collective  wisdom  of  mankind 
as  it  is  displayed  in  the  developments  of  history."  This 
passage  may  be  fairly  accepted  as  expressing  a  senti- 
ment widely  entertained  by  thoughtful  men  in  our  time, 
most  of  whom,  however,  instead  of  speaking  of  "  the  col- 
lective wisdom  of  mankind/'  would  prefer  to  use  Goethe's 

M 


178  THE    SPIRIT    OF    THE   AGE. 

personification  of  tlie  Zeit-Gcist,  the  Spirit  of  tlie  Age, 
which  may  be  considered  its  poetical  equivalent. 

But  the  painful  question  returns  upon  us,  Does  this 
make  things  any  better  ?  What  is  "  the  spirit  of  the 
age,"  or  "  the  collective  wisdom  of  mankind,"  but  just 
the  sum  of  the  intellectual  forces  before  which  we  seem 
compelled  to  drift  so  heljjlessly  ?  And  judging  from  the 
past,  this  same  "  spirit  of  the  age "  does  not  appear  to 
be  very  worthy  of  confidence.  It  is  not  very  long  since 
"  the  spirit  of  the  age  "  was  a  decided  and  determined 
advocate  of  slavery.  The  spirit  of  the  Bible  was  all  the 
while  against  it.  Nature  was  against  it.  Reason  was 
ao-ainst  it.  Some  far-seeing  individuals  here  and  there 
were  against  it.  But  "  the  spirit  of  the  age  "  was  de- 
cidedly in  its  favour.  Is  this  calculated  to  give  us  much 
confidence  in  "  the  collective  wisdom  of  mankind  ?  " 

If  we  think  of  the  cause  of  freedom  in  general,  the 
case  is  no  better.  We  can  traverse  century  after  cen- 
tury in  which  "  the  spirit  of  the  age  "  has  been  entirely 
hostile  to  both  civil  and  religious  liberty.  And  it  is  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  it  was  the  spirit  of  the  Church, 
as  distinguished  from  "  the  spirit  of  the  world,"  that  was 
to  blame.  Even  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  and 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  freedom's 
victory  was  drawing  near,  the  great  freethinkers  of  the 
time,  men  like  Hobbes  and  Bolingbroke  and  Hume,  were, 
as  a  rule,  thoroughly  opposed  to  popular  enfranchisement. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  early  French  freethinkers,  Mon- 
taigne and  others.  These  were  the  men  who,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  would  have  been  the  most  pronounced  advocates 
of  freedom  if  they  had  lived  a  century  later ;  but,  living 
at  the  time  they  did,  they  were  simply  led  astray,  as 
generation  after  generation  before  them  had  been,  by  this 
same  misleading  "  spirit  of  the  age." 


THE   SPIRIT    OF    THE    AGE.  I  79 

In  that  exceedingly  brilliant  age  which  followed  the 
discovery  of  America,  when  so  many  fallacies  were  being 
dispelled,  and  so  much  substantial  progress  was  being 
made  on  almost  every  line,  we  find  the  foremost  nation 
of  the  time  putting  all  its  energies  into  the  accumulation 
of  the  precious  metals,  with  the  idea  that  gold  and  silver 
constituted  the  real  wealth  of  the  world ;  and  though 
Spain,  on  account  of  her  advanced  position  at  that  time, 
took  the  lead  in  the  great  rush  for  gold  and  silver,  and 
suffered  most  in  consequence  in  after  years,  yet  the  rest 
of  the  civilised  world  was  willing  enough  to  follow  her 
example  as  they  could  find  opportunity.  It  all  came  from 
"  the  spirit  of  the  age." 

It  was  at  the  bidding  of  "  the  spirit  of  the  age  "  that 
Western  Europe  was  induced,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  to  engage  in  the  madness  of  the  Crusades. 
Superficial  or  unjust  writers  or  readers  of  history  may 
credit  this  folly  to  Christianity,  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
done  in  the  name  of  Christianity;  but  they  would  utterly 
fail  to  show  anything  in  the  Christianity  of  Christ  or  of 
His  apostles  which  would  give  the  slightest  encourage- 
ment to  it.  It  was  all  the  doing  of  "  the  spirit  of  the 
age."  It  came  from  *'  the  collective  wisdom  of  mankind  " 
at  the  time. 

Illustrations  of  this  kind  might  be  multiplied  inde- 
finitely, but  we  presume  it  is  not  necessary.  It  is  plain 
that  no  dependence  can.  be  placed  on  "  the  spirit  of  the 
age."  We  take  for  granted  that  no  one  would  be  guilty 
of  the  intolerable  conceit  of  supposing  that  just  because 
the  number  of  this  century  happens  to  be  nineteen,  there- 
fore it  must  necessarily  be  right,  while  all  the  rest  were 
wrong.  After  all,  as  we  have  already  hinted,  it  is  just 
this  very  subserviency  of  all  of  us  to  "the  spirit  of  the 
age  "  which  is  so  humiliating  and  distressing.     Our  free- 


l8o  THE    SPIRIT    OF    THE   AGE. 

thinkers  are  not  freethinkers  after  all  ;  tliey  go  with  the 
multitude  ;  they  believe  as  they  do  because  they  happen 
to  live  in  such  a  place,  and  at  such  a  time  ;  they  go  with 
the  current.  If  it  were  an  age  of  faith,  they  would 
believe.  As  it  is  an  age  of  doubt,  they  doubt.  Having 
read  a  certain  set  of  books,  they  are  Darwinians.  Had 
it  been  as  fashionable  in  their  set  to  read  German 
philosophy,  they  would  for  the  same  reason  have  been 
Hegelians,  or  something  else.  It  is  a  simple  matter,  first 
of  the  currents  which  are  flowing  at  the  time,  and  secondly 
of  the  particular  current  which  they  happen  to  get  into. 
A  chance  acquaintance,  a  stray  book,  may  be  the  means 
of  their  getting  into  the  current.  Alas  !  alas  !  for  boasted 
independence  of  thought ;  alas  !  for  delusive  originality  ; 
alas  !  for  the  miserable  subjection  of  men  to  "  the  spirit 
of  the  age." 

But  are  we,  after  all,  in  such  a  Avretched  plight  ? 
Must  we  necessarily  drift  with  the  current  ?  Is  there  no 
criterion  of  truth,  even  with  regard  to  matters  which  are 
of  the  utmost  importance  ?  Is  there  nothing  but  currents 
beneath  us  ?  Are  there  no  gales  from  heaven  by  the  use 
of  which,  while  not  escaping  the  force  of  the  currents 
altogether,  we  shall  nevertheless  be  able  to  steer  our 
course  across  them,  or  even  against  them  if  need  be  ? 

Most  undoubtedly  there  are.  The  Apostle  Paul  knew 
well  enough  about  "  the  spirit  of  the  age ; "  he  had 
gauged  well  "  the  collective  wisdom  of  mankind  "  as  a  safe 
guide,  though  he  did  labour  under  the  misfortune  of  living 
at  so  great  a  distance  from  the  glorious  nineteenth  century  ; 
and  this  is  what  he  says : — "  Now  we  have  received,  not 
the  spirit  of  the  world  " — that  is  precisely  the  same  thing 
as  "  the  spirit  of  the  age  " — "  but  the  Spirit  which  is  of 
God ;  that  we  might  know  the  things  that  are  freely 
given   to    us  of  God."       Here,    surely,  is   something  to 


THE   SPIRIT    OF    THE    AGE.  l8l 

auclior  by,  if  it  be  as  lie  says  ;  and  it  is  as  lie  says.  In 
saying  this  we  do  not  dogmatise  ;  "  we  speak  what  we  do 
know." 

There  Avas  One  who  came  into  our  world  at  a  period 
which  is  known  in  the  Bible  as  "  the  fulness  of  the  time," 
who  put  forth  this  unique  and  extraordinary  claim,  "  I 
am  the  Light  of  the  world ;  he  that  followeth  Me  shall 
not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of  life." 
Did  He  live  in  a  great  country  ?  No.  In  a  great  age  ? 
No.  In  circumstances  fitted  to  induce  a  marvellous  de- 
velopment of  intellect  and  spirit  ?  No.  Then  the  claim 
mnst  have  been  ridiculous  ?  No.  On  the  contrary,  it 
stands  out  clearer  than  ever  to-day,  though  eighteen 
centuries  have  rolled  away  since  it  was  made.  He 
expressed  Himself  on  all  the  topics  that  are  of  chief 
importance  to  mankind.  His  words  have  stood  the  test 
of  time.  The  world  has  made  amazing  progress  since 
that  time,  but  His  words  are  still  in  advance,  shining 
before  us  of  the  nineteenth  century  as  a  light  to  beckon 
us  on,  still  on,  and  up  to  heaven  and  to  God.  It  was  no 
fantastic  claim  that  He  announced  when  He  said,  "  I  am 
the  Light  of  the  w^orld." 

He  lived  only  a  short  time  in  the  world  ;  but,  before 
He  left  it.  He  made  this  promise,  "  I  will  pray  the 
Father,  and  He  shall  give  you  another  Comforter,  that 
He  may  abide  with  you  for  ever ;  even  the  Spirit  of 
truth  ;  "  and  "  when  He,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  He 
will  guide  you  into  all  truth."  This  promise  He  fulfilled 
a  few  days  after  He  left  the  world  ;  and  those  to  whom 
it  was  fulfilled  give  us  abundant  evidence  of  its  fulfilment, 
not  only  in  their  lives,  but  in  the  writings  which  they 
have  left  us,  which  are  as  different  from  anything  which 
the  spirit  of  that  age  could  have  produced,  as  light  is 
from  darkness.      Men  have  interpreted  these  writings  of 


152  THE    SPIRIT   OF    THE   AGE. 

the  New  Testament  very  differently  from  age  to  age, 
because  in  their  interpretations  they  have  allowed  them- 
selves to  drift  with  the  currents  of  the  times ;  but  much 
as  the  Sacred  Scriptures  have  been  perverted  in  the 
interest  of  persecution,  in  the  interest  of  tyranny,  in  the 
interest  of  slavery,  in  the  interest  of  all  kinds  of  iniquity, 
it  has  always  been  found  that  only  by  perversion  could 
they  be  made  to  point  in  any  but  the  one  direction,  and 
that,  as  soon  as  the  unhallowed  spirit  of  the  age  was 
removed  from  the  scene,  the  light  shone,  full  and  clear 
and  bright  as  of  old,  and  still  far,  far  in  advance  of  the 
times. 

Now  this  same  "  Spirit  which  is  of  God,"  who  guided 
these  early  disciples  of  Christ  so  marvellously,  is  with  us 
still.  This  is  our  safeguard,  and  our  only  sure  safeguard, 
against  the  treacherous  currents  of  the  times.  By  faith 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  we  draw  near  to  God ;  and,  as 
soon  as  we  take  this  attitude,  the  Spirit  of  God  comes  to 
the  soul,  and  "  in  His  light  we  see  light  "clearly  on  those 
great  matters  which  are  the  subject  of  revelation.  And 
so  long  as  we  keep  near  to  Him,  though,  of  course,  we 
cannot  but  be  influenced  by  the  currents  which  are  flow- 
ing under  and  around  us,  yet  we  are  secured  against 
wandering  away  from  the  course  which  leads  to  the 
haven  of  rest  and  harbour  of  truth . 

The  main  current  of  the  age  in  which  we  live  is  like 
the  Gulf  Stream.  It  is  flowing  steadily,  apparently  re- 
sistlessly,  north,  north,  north,  to  the  cold,  and  the  rain, 
and  the  fogs,  and  the  ice, — to  the  dreary  land  where  the 
blessed  sun,  when  it  sets,  seems  to  set  for  evermore. 
The  "  advanced  thinkers," — who  are  they  ?  They  are 
those  who  are  farther  north  than  the  others,  nearer  the 
ice,  nearer  the  pole,  nearer  the  unbroken  darkness.  Oh  ! 
terrible,  terrible  current,  if  indeed  we  must  all  follow  it ! 


THE   SPIRIT   OF    THE    AGE.  1 53 

But  listen  :  hear  you  not  that  sound  as  of  the  wind  ? 
It  is  the  wind.  It  is  a  steady  wind.  It  is  the  Trade 
Wind,  blowing  gently  down  towards  the  region  of  the 
cedar  and  the  palm,  the  orange  and  the  myrtle,  and  all 
the  glory  of  the  sunny  South.  You  need  not  fear  the 
current  after  all.  You  need  not  travel  to  the  pole. 
Spread  your  sails.  Invite  the  blessed  gale.  Catch  the 
heavenly  inspiration ;  it  will  carry  you  safely,  happily 
home  to  "  the  better  land,"  in  spite  of  all  the  currents 
that  are  flowing  north. 

Does  this  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  interfere  with 
our  freedom  ?  Not  at  all ;  no  more  than  reading  a  book 
does  it.  When  we  read  a  book,  we  give  our  minds  up 
for  the  time,  so  far  as  the  train  of  our  thoughts  is  con- 
cerned, to  the  author  of  the  book,  allowing  him  to  present 
what  he  thinks  proper  for  our  consideration.  And  this 
is  just  what  we  do  with  God's  Spirit ;  we  give  Him  our 
attention ;  we  allow  Him  to  present  His  truth  to  us. 
We  are,  of  course,  powerfully  influenced  thereby,  but  not 
against  our  will.  As  soon  as  a  man's  will  is  set  against 
the  Spirit,  He  leaves.  All  He  does  is  in  accordance  with 
our  nature.  He  never  forces  anything  upon  us ;  He 
simply  shows  us  things  that  we  should  not  have  seen 
without  Him.  He  opens  His  celestial  hand,  and  sets  the 
heavenly  treasure  before  us.  He  takes  of  the  things  of 
Christ  and  shows  them  unto  us. 

In  all  this  He  undoubtedly  obtains  a  powerful  in- 
fluence over  our  minds,  but  no  more  than  He  is  entitled 
to.  We  still  remain  susceptible  of  other  and  lower  in- 
fluences. We  still  feel  the  power  over  us  of  the  society 
in  which  we  live,  and  especially  of  the  men  of  genius 
whose  books  we  read.  We  feel  as  keenly  as  ever  the 
force  of  those  difficulties  which  the  many  able  opponents 
of  Christianity  have  to  present.     We  cannot  read  their 


184  THE    SPIRIT   OF   THE   AGE. 

books  without  feeling  tlie  spell  of  tlieir  power  over  us  ; 
but  we  are  not  quite  at  tlieir  mercy,  as  many  are.  We 
can  look  at  all  they  show  us,  for  our  minds  i*eason  in  the 
same  way,  and  the  mysteries  of  life  are  around  us  as  they 
are  around  them.  But  then  we  have  things  before  our 
minds  which  they  have  not.  "  We  have  received  the 
Spirit  which  is  of  God,  that  we  might  know  the  things 
that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God."  And  powerful  as  is 
the  influence  which  these  great  men  have  over  us,  and 
legitimate  as  it  is  that  they  should  have  it,  on  account  of 
their  genius,  there  is  a  still  more  powerful  influence  over  us, 
that  of  God,  to  whom  it  is  surely  as  reasonable  and  proper 
to  listen  as  to  the  most  gifted  of  men.  This  influence 
which  is  over  us  from  above  is  a  steadying  influence  amid 
the  currents  and  eddies,  not  to  speak  of  the  shallows  and 
breakers,  of  life.  While  men  of  genius  are  ever  making 
new  departures,  and  ever  contradicting  one  another,  and 
even  themselves,  the  testimony  of  the  Heavenly  Spirit  is 
the  same  from  age  to  age.  Cannot  we  sing  the  Psalms 
of  David,  and  Asaph,  and  the  sons  of  Korah,  as  if  they 
were  written  yesterday  ?  We  can  read  the  prophets  of 
old,  and  find  them  in  no  wise  behind  the  prophets  of 
the  day.  We  can  take  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  of  His  apostles,  as  texts  to  preach  on  from  year  to 
year,  from  generation  to  generation,  from  century  to 
century,  and  find  that  they  are  no  nearer  being  worn  out 
than  when  they  were  first  uttered  or  written.  We  find 
that  while  science  and  philosophy  have  been  continually 
changing, — while  theology,*  psychology,  and  ontology, 
and  all  the  "  ologies,"  (all,  that  is,  which  comes  under  the 

*  Theology,  however,  does  not  alter  nearly  so  much  as  other  sciences.  It 
never  shifts  its  centre,  as  astronomy  has  had  to  do.  The  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness has  been  its  centre  from  the  beginning,  and  will  be  without  end.  See 
Rev.  i.  8. 


THE    SPIRIT    OF    THE    AGE.  1 85 

domain  of  the  human  \oyoif  or  reason),  have  been  flowing 
here  and  eddying  there,  and  changing  so  much  from  age 
to  age,  that  their  very  identity  seems  ahnost  lost  at  times, 
— man's  spiritual  experience  has  been  always  the  same. 
May  we  not  appeal  to  our  hymnology  as  a  proof?  There 
are  hymns  in  our  possession  from  all  the  centuries,  and 
the  same  spirit  breathes  through  them  all.  Take,  for 
instance,  a  hymn  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  very  darkest 
that  we  know  ;  we  despise  the  philosophy  of  that  century, 
we  look  with  pity  upon  its  science,  we  cannot  sympathise 
even  with  its  theology,  but  we  can  sing  its  hymns.  Here 
is  one  of  them  : — 

"  Come,  Holy  Gliost,  m  love  ; 
Shed  on  us,  from  above, 

Thine  own  bright  ray  ; 
Divinely  good  Tliou  art ; 
Thy  sacred  gifts  impart, 
To  gladden  each  sad  heart ; 

Oh,  come  to-day  ! 

Come,  tenderest  Friend,  and  best, 
Our  most  delightful  Guest, 

With  soothing  power  ; 
Rest  which  the  weary  know, 
Shade  'mid  the  noontide  glow, 
Peace  when  deep  griefs  o'erflow  ; 

Cheer  us  this  hour. 

Exalt  our  low  desires  ; 
Extinguish  passion's  fires  ; 

Heal  every  wound  ; 
Our  stubborn  spirits  bend  ; 
Our  icy  coldness  end  ; 
Our  devioiTS  steps  attend. 

While  heavenward  bound. 

Come,  Light  serene  and  still, 
Our  inmost  bosoms  fill, 

Dwell  in  each  breast : 


1 86  THE    SPIRIT    OP   THE   AGE. 

We  know  no  dawn  but  Thine  ; 
Send  forth  Thy  beams  divine, 
~    On  our  dark  souls  to  shine, 
And  make  us  blest. 

Come,  all  the  faithful  bless  ; 
Let  all  who  Christ  confess 

His  praise  employ  : 
Give  virtue's  ricli  reward  ; 
Victorious  death  accord, 
And,  with  our  glorious  Lord, 

Eternal  joy." 

And  not  only  liave  we  such  utterances,  expressive  of 
tlie  heart's  devotion,  from  all  the  centuries,  but  through- 
out them  all,  wherever  the  Gospel  has  been  preached,  the 
experience  of  those  who  have  received  it  has  been  sub- 
stantially the  same. 

The  history  of  Christianity  affords  abundant  evidence 
that  the  Saviour's  promise  has  been  fulfilled,  that  there 
has  been,  and  still  is,  among  us  a  Heavenly  Guide,  not 
misleading  and  changeful  like  the  spirit  of  tlie  age,  repre- 
senting "  the  collective  wisdom  (or  folly  ?)  of  mankind," 
but  trustworthy  and  changeless,  leading  those  who  trust 
Him  into  all  truth,  which  it  is  necessary  for  them  to 
know  in  order  to  life,  and  peace,  and  deathless  hope. 


XIV. 


THE  SOUL  OF  BUSINESS;  OR,  THE  LAW  OF 
CHRIST  AS  APPLIED  TO  TRADE  AND 
COMMERCE. 

TS  it  possible  to  be  at  once  a  tliorougli  business  man  and 
a  thorough  Christian  ?  Is  it  possible  in  these  times 
to  live  a  business  life  that  shall  be  Christian  in  its  spirit 
as  well  as  in  its  conduct  ?  Can  the  law  of  Christ  be 
written  in  the  heart  of  it,  as  an  inspiration  within,  ac- 
cordinsf  to  the  New  Testament  idea  ?  Or  must  it  suffice 
to  hedge  it  in  from  without  by  the  restraints  of  a  law, 
which  takes  the  form,  "  Thou  shalt  not  ?  "  Is  it  enough 
never  to  deviate  by  a  hair's-breadth  from  the  path  of 
rectitude,  or  is  something  more  required  than  this  mere 
negative  virtue  ? 

The  writer  of  these  pages  believes  that  questions  of 
this  kind  present  real  difficulty  to  many  earnest  men  of 
business  ;  and  it  is  in  the  hope  of  contributing  in  some 
small  measure  to  their  solution  that  he  ventures  respect- 
fully to  ask  the  attention  of  Christians  engaged  in  busi- 
ness to  the  considerations  which  follow,  bearing  on  the 
ethics  of  commerce,  from  what  seems  to  him  the  Christian 
point  of  view. 

The  law  of  Christ  is  more  than  mere  morality.  A  law 
of  righteousness  it  is  ;  and  so  far  it  is  coincident  with  the 
universally  accepted  code  of  morals.  But  over  and  above 
the  law  of  righteousness  there  rises  another  law,  which  is 


1 88  THE    SOUL    OF    BUSINESS. 

distinctively  the  law  of  Christ.  This  is  the  law  of  love, 
in  two  great  branches  :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  mind  ; "  and,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself."  No  one  doubts  that  common  morality  should 
rule  the  Christian  and  ever3^body  else  in  the  ordinary 
business  of  life ;  and  therefore  we  need  not  spend  any 
time  in  insisting  on  the  claims  of  the  law  of  Chi'ist  so  far 
as  it  coincides  with  the  other  :  it  is  with  the  higher  law 
of  love  that  we  must  deal. 

It  will  be  at  once  seen,  then,  that  our  subject  is  not 
what  is  generally  understood  as  "  commercial  morality." 
I  firmly  believe  that  we  shall  never  have  the  right  kind 
of  commercial  morality  till  men  take  the  higher  standard 
of  thoroughgoing  Christian  principle,  and  insist  not  only 
on  that  righteousness  which  no  one  disputes,  but  also  ou 
that  love  which  very  few  acknowledge  as  binding  in  the 
ordinary  business  of  life. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  while  men  in  general  are  sound 
enough  in  theory  as  to  commercial  morality,  they  are 
very  far  from  being  as  universally  sound  in  practice ;  and 
therefore  there  is  abundant  scope  for  the  most  strenuous 
enforcement  of  common  honesty  and  integrity  ;  occasion 
enougli,  and  quite  too  much,  for  urging,  and  urging  again, 
the  duty  of  fair  and  square  dealing  as  between  man  and 
man  ;  and  such  appeals  can  be  properly  enough  made, 
and  ought  to  be  made,  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  but  the  question  comes  whether,  while  not  neglect- 
ing this,  there  may  not  be  something  better  for  us  to  do. 

It  may  have  been  observed  how  little,  comparatively, 
Christ  has  to  say  about  common  honesty.  It  might  be 
said,  indeed,  that  trade  and  commerce  did  not  bulk  at  all 
so  largely  in  Palestine  life  as  they  do  in  ours ;  and  yet 
they  did  constitute  so  large  a  part  of  it  that  it  would 


THE   SOUL   OF   BUSINESS.  1 89 

have  been  unpardonable  to  omit  them  or  pass  them  lightly 
by.  Besides,  Christ  was  legislating,  not  for  Palestine 
alone,  but  for  the  world  ;  and  not  for  that  century  alone, 
but  for  all  the  coming  centuries ;  and  therefore  we  must 
seek  some  other  explanation  of  what  to  some  might 
appear  a  strange  omission  or  neglect.  We  cannot  do 
better,  probably,  than  examine,  with  this  view,  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  That  sermon  may  be  fairly  con- 
sidered a  summary  of  the  law  of  Christ.  It  has  been 
aptly  called  by  Dr.  Dykes  "  The  Manifesto  of  the  King  ;  " 
and  while  it  is  by  no  means  a  legislative  code,  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  term,  it  is  a  summary  of  principles  of 
wide  enough  range  to  cover  all  the  common  relations  of 
life.  Now,  if  we  were  to  ask  what  place  commercial 
morality  has  in  that  code,  what  would  be  the  answer  ? 
Those  who  take  low  ground  on  the  subject  would  probably 
say,  "  No  place  at  all."  The  main  substance  of  it  is  an 
exposition  of  the  righteousness  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  yet 
the  one  commandment  which  directly  covers  the  ground 
of  commercial  morality  is  deliberately  passed  by :  the 
eighth  commandment  is  not  even  mentioned.  The  great 
Lawgiver  of  the  new  Covenant  deals  with  all  the  rest  of 
the  second  table  of  the  Law,  but  omits  all  reference  to  the 
one  commandment  which  some  people  now-a-days  seem  to 
consider  "  the  be-all  and  the  end-all  "  of  morality.  What 
is  the  reason? 

A  careful  reading  of  what  follows  Avill  suggest  that 
it  is  because  He  has  something  better  to  say.  He  has 
something  more  efficient  in  reserve.  He  sees  that  the 
tenth  commandment  gives  a  far  stronger  leverage  than 
the  eighth ;  and  so  He  urges  and  presses  it,  not  only  in 
its  own  light,  but  in  the  light  of  the  "  first  and  great 
commandment,"  warning  us  against  "  laying  up  trea- 
sures  on  the  earth ; "   warning    us    against    attempting 


I90  THE    SOUL    OF    BUSINESS. 

to  "  serve  God  and  mammon ; "  "warning  us  against 
too  much  anxiety  as  to  the  supply  of  our  bodily 
wants;  and  closing  a  long  and  sustained  appeal  by  the 
positive  rule,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you."  It  is  in  this  large  and  wise  way  that  He 
deals  with  the  business  of  ordinary  life ;  lifting  it  out 
of  the  region  of  mere  morality,  and  setting  it  in  the 
full  light  of  "  the  first  and  great  commandment "  of  the 
law  of  love  -,  and  then,  further  on,  He  urges  a  similarly 
high  standard  in  the  light  of  "  the  second,  which  is  like 
unto  it,"  when  He  lays  down  the  golden  rule,  "  Therefore, 
whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them  ;  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets." 
Thus  we  see  that  He  does  not  omit  or  neglect  the  ordinary 
business  of  life,  but  reaches  and  deals  with  it  in  a  way  of 
His  own. 

This  method  is  consistently  kept  up  throughout  all  His 
teaching.  Instead  of  treating  of  business  relations  on  the 
lower  ground  of  fair  and  honest  dealing,  He  always  tries 
to  lift  men  up  to  the  higher  ground.  When  a  certain 
man  comes  to  Him  with  the  appeal,  "  Master,  speak  to 
my  brother,  that  he  divide  the  inheritance  with  me,"  He 
not  only  will  not  interfere,  but  He  uses  the  opportunity, 
not,  as  might  have  been  expected,  for  the  enforcement  of 
honesty,  but  for  an  earnest  warning  against  covetousness ; 
"  He  said  unto  them.  Take  heed,  and  beware  of  covetous- 
ness, for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of 
the  things  which  he  possesseth."  So  it  is  all  the  way 
through.  He  by  no  means  undervalues  honesty,  but  He 
lays  far  greater  stress  on  having  a  heart  set  on  higher 
things  than  money  or  any  earthly  possession.  He  lays  the 
axe  at  the  root  of  the  upas  tree.  He  plants  His  danger- 
signal  not  at  the  spot  where  the  ice  ends  and  the  water 


THE   SOUL    OF    BUSINESS.  I9I 

begins,  but  at  the  place  where  the  ice  begins  to  get  thin. 
He  treats  not  the  mere  symptoms,  but  the  deep-seated 
disease  within. 

And  His  example  is  faithfully  followed  by  His  apostles. 
Their  warnings  against  covetousness  are  far  more  fre- 
quent than  against  dishonesty.  And  even  when  honesty  is 
urged,  it  is  a  larger  and  loftier  honesty  than  is  involved 
in  mere  fair  dealing.  It  has  in  it  the  idea  of  nobility 
and  honour,  as  well  as  of  mere  justice.  They  did  not 
make  it  a  mere  matter  of  the  exchange  of  money,  or  of 
that  which  money  represents,  as  our  modern  moralists  are 
so  apt  to  do,  but  of  "the  love  of  money."  It  was  the 
root  they  were  aiming  at.  And  even  when  they  do  look 
at  the  matter  from  the  lower  point  of  view,  how  naturally 
they  rise  to  the  higher ;  as  when  the  Apostle,  writing  to 
the  Roman  Christians,  says,  "  Owe  no  man  anything, 
but  to  love  one  another ;  for  he  that  loveth  another  hath 
fulfilled  the  law.  .  .  .  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neigh- 
bour ;  therefore  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law." 

We  find,  then,  that  the  method  of  Christ  and  His 
apostles  was  one  which,  while  assuming  and  requiring 
the  broad  basis  of  righteousness  in  all  things,  specially 
urged  the  law  of  love  in  both  its  branches,  as  the  true 
means  by  which  even  the  commonest  morality  in  the 
business  of  life  could  be  most  effectively  secured. 

Was  the  method  a  sound  one,  then  ?  If  so,  is  it 
applicable  still,  and  likely  to  be  effective,  in  all  the  com- 
plexity of  the  business  life  of  the  nineteenth  century  ? 
This  is  our  main  question,  and  a  very  important  one  it  is. 

There  are  those  who  emphatically  say.  No;  and  we 
must  listen  to  what  they  have  to  urge.  There  is,  first,  what 
may  be  called  the  objection  of  the  average  business  man. 
It  may  be  thus  expressed  :  "  Business  is  business,  and  must 
be  conducted  on  strictly  business  principle?,  according  to 


192  THE    SOUL    OF    BUSINESS. 

the  law  of  demand  and  supply,  and  the  common-sense 
rule  of  buying  in  the  cheapest  and  selling  in  the  dearest 
market.  This  talk  about  the  law  of  love  is  all  very  ^Yell 
for  '  pulpit  eloquence,'  or  pulpit  twaddle,  as  the  case  may 
be  ;   on  'Change  it  must  be,  '  Every  man  for  himself,  and 

' "   well,   instead    of   finishinof    the    adao-e    in    the 

rather  rough  way  which  shows  what  is  the  fate  of  "  the 
hindmost,"  we  shall  give  the  modern  equivalent,  and  call 
it  "  the  survival  of  the  fittest."  And  the  use  of  this 
scientific  phrase  reminds  us  that,  besides  the  objection  of 
the  average  business  man,  there  is  that  of  the  sociologist, 
which,  however,  is  just  the  old  popular  objection  put  into 
scientific  form.  It  is  fully  and  ably  set  forth  by  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer,  especially  in  his  "  Data  of  Ethics," 
where,  according  to  himself,  he  shows  to  a  demonstration 
that  the  Christian  law  is  not  only  inapplicable  to  the 
ordinary  business  of  life,  but  would  be  positivel}^  ruinous 
to  society  if  it  were  actually  carried  out.  It  may  be  well 
to  quote  some  of  his  own  words,  premising  that  by 
"  egoism  "  he  means  the  doctrine,  "  Every  man  for  him- 
self," and  by  "  altruism  "  the  doctrine,  "  Every  man  for 
his  neighbour,"  which,  according  to  him,  is  the  Christian 
doctrine.      He  says  : — 

"  It  does  not  seem  to  be  suspected  that  pure  altruism 
is  actually  wrong.  Brought  up,  as  each  is,  in  the  nominal 
acceptance  of  a  creed  which  wholly  subordinates  egoism 
to  altruism,  and  gives  sundry  precepts  that  are  absolutely 
altruistic,  each  citizen,  while  ignoring  these  in  his  business, 
and  tacitly  denying  them  in  various  opinions  he  utters,  daily 
gives  to  them  lip-homage,  and  supposes  that  acceptance 
of  them  is  required  of  him,  though  he  finds  it  impossible. 
Feeling  that  he  cannot  call  them  in  question  without 
calling  in  question  his  religion  as  a  whole,  he  pretends 
to  others  and  to  himself  that  he  believes  them — believes 


THE    SOUL    OF    BUSINESS.  1 93 

tilings  wLich  in  his  innermost  consciousness  he  knows  ho 
does  not  believe.  He  professes  to  think  that  entire  self- 
sacrifice  must  be  right,  though  dimly  conscious  that  it 
would  be  fatal."  * 

The  enormous  mistake  on  which  this  criticism  is  based 
is  due  to  a  confusion  of  ideas  between  what  is  required 
of  a  Christian  as  towards  God,  and  what  is  required  as 
towards  his  fellow-man.  It  is  true  that  we  are  asked  to 
surrender  ourselves  implicitly  and  entirely  to  God.  "  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind."  If  this  is  "  pure 
altruism,"  it  is  an  altruism  which  can  never  do  any  harm 
in  the  most  complex  state  of  society,  but  will  always,  and 
in  all  circumstances,  secure  the  highest  possible  welfare, 
both  of  the  individual  and  of  society.  Let  a  man  im- 
plicitly and  fully  surrender  himself  to  God — to  obey  His 
commandments,  to  do  His  will,  to  live  for  His  glory — 
and  it  will  be  the  best  for  the  man  himself,  the  best  for 
his  family,  the  best  for  his  friends,  the  best  for  his  enemies, 
the  best  for  the  society  in  which  he  lives,  the  best  for  the 
world  at  large.  Would  that  all  mankind  were  only  altru- 
istic after  this  fashion,  and  the  great  problem  of  sociology 
and  of  Christianity  would  be  finally  and  fully  solved. 
There  would  be  a  heaven  upon  earth ! 

But  the  scientific  critic  of  the  law  of  Christ  seems  to 
know  nothing  of  this  kind  of  altruism.  The  altruism  he 
is  thinking  of  is  the  surrender  of  everybody  to  his  neigh- 
bour ;  and  no  intelligent  Christian  needs  to  be  told  that 
there  is  no  such  surrender  asked  of  us  by  the  law  of 

*  "Study  of  Sociology,"  International  Series,  p.  184.  It  need  scarcely 
be  remarked  that  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Spencer  are  important,  not  only  on 
account  of  his  personal  ability  and  eminence,  but  because  he  is  the  chief 
exponent  of  ethical  views  which  are  widely  prevalent  amongst  the  most 
cultured  people  of  the  day. 

N 


194  THE   SOUL   OF   BUSINESS. 

Christ.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour."  How  ?  With 
the  whole  heart  ?  No  ;  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself."  This,  as  we  are  taught,  is  the  sum  of  the 
second  table  of  the  Law,  which  has  to  do  with  our  duty 
to  our  neighbour.  And  what  a  grievous  misrepresenta- 
tion of  it  are  the  words  above  quoted  !  And  still  more 
so,  when  our  critic  goes  on  to  say  that  it  calls  us  to  the 
"  continual  giving  up  of  pleasures,  and  continual  submis- 
sion to  pains,"  "  so  that  its  final  outcome  is  debility, 
disease,  and  abridgment  of  life."  There  are,  indeed,  some 
exhortations  here  and  there  in  the  New  Testament  which 
seem  open  to  this  kind  of  criticism,  if  literally  pressed ; 
but  the  difficulty  entirely  disappears  if  we  look  at  the 
evident  spirit  of  them  ;  and  this  is  what  both  Christ  and 
His  apostles  remind  us  we  must  do.  For  instance,  "  Look 
not  every  man  on  his  own  things,  but  every  man  also 
on  the  things  of  others."  Here  the  first  part  seems  to 
forbid  attention  to  our  own  interests,  while  the  second 
summons  us  to  attend  to  the  interests  of  others.  But 
does  not  the  word  "  also "  show  clearly  that  a  proper 
attention  to  our  own  interests  is  taken  for  granted  as 
a  thing  of  course  ?  "  Look  not  every  man  on  his  own 
things,  but  every  man  also  on  the  things  of  others."  It 
is  abundantly  clear  that  the  spirit  of  this  is  to  caution  us 
against  seeking  after  our  own  interests  to  the  disregard 
of  the  interests  of  our  neighbours.  And  surely  this  is 
ffood  enough  social  doctrine.      It  is  not  at  all  at  variance 

o  o 

with  the  strictest  social  science.  And  then,  lest  any 
should  be  disposed  to  run  into  the  altruistic  extreme  of 
which  the  critic  is  afraid,  have  we  not  such  reminders  as 
this,  "  If  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  specially  for 
those  of  his  own  house,  he  hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is 
worse  than  an  infidel "  ?  Thus  we  find  that  the  scientific 
objection  to  the  Christian  law  of  love  does  not  deal  fairly 


THE    SOUL    OF   BUSINESS.  1 95 

with  the  second  commandment  of  the  Law,  and,  what  is 
still  worse,  leaves  out  of  sight  the  first  commandment, 
which  takes  precedence  of  the  second,  and  therefore,  of 
course,  modifies  its  application.  Such  objections  are  valid 
against  certain  systems  of  modern  humanitarianism,  but 
they  have  no  force  whatever  against  the  Christian  law  of 
love. 

So  much  for  the  scientific  objection.  But  a  little  more 
may  be  said  on  the  practical  difficulties  of  the  average 
business  man.  There  are,  undoubtedly,  quite  conscien- 
tious and  excellent  business  men  who  do  not  see  how  the 
law  of  love  can  be  carried  into  ordinary  business.  Let  us, 
then,  investigate  a  little  as  to  whether  it  is  practicable  to 
carry  on  business  without  interfering  with  either  of  the 
two  great  branches  of  the  law  of  love — either  with  the 
supreme  devotion  of  the  heart  to  God,  or  with  that  love 
to  our  neighbour  which  the  law  of  Christ  requires. 

As  to  the  former,  the  noble  inscription  on  the  Royal 
Exchange  in  the  city  of  London  is  quite  sufficient  to 
settle  the  matter.     We  have  only  to  remember  that  "  The 

EARTH  IS  THE  LORD's,  AND  THE  FULNESS  THEREOF  ;  the 

world,  and  they  that  dwell  therein,"  to  see  that  if  a  man 
is  engaged  in  any  sort  of  occupation  which  tends,  in 
however  humble  a  manner,  to  replenish  the  earth  and 
bring  out  its  fulness,  to  benefit  the  world  or  any  of  its 
inhabitants,  he  is  engaged  in  the  Lord's  service,  and  may 
do,  and  ought  to  do,  what  he  is  doing  "  as  unto  the  Lord." 
No  matter  what  kind  of  service  he  is  rendering,  whether 
he  is  ministering  to  bodily  or  intellectual  or  sj)iritual 
wants,  whether  he  is  making  shoes  or  sermons — and  it  is 
far  better  work  for  God  to  make  a  good  shoe  than  a  poor 
sermon — pictures  or  pins,  provided  only  he  is  doing  some 
good  in  God's  world,  he  may  and  ought  to  look  upon  his 
work  as  service  rendered  to  the  great  Ruler  of  the  world 


196  THE    SOUL    OF  BUSINESS. 

and  King  of  men,*  and  tLerefore  may  do  it  not  only 
without  interfering  with,  but  in  fulfilment  of,  the  claim 
which  God  makes  on  the  supreme  devotion  of  the  heart 
and  life.  And  as  to  the  lower  motives  which  do  and 
must  come  in,  there  is  not  one  of  them  belonging  to  human 
nature,  apart  from  sin,  that  is  incompatible  with  supreme 
devotion  to  God.  All  that  is  necessary  is,  that  they  be 
kept  in  due  subordination.  For  example,  is  it  not  God's 
intention  that  we  should  make  a  living,  and  support  our 
families,  by  our  business  ?  Clearly,  then,  it  may  also  be 
ours,  without  interfering  with  the  supremacy  of  our  devo- 
tion to  Him.  Or  take  the  desire  to  achieve  success — is 
not  that  a  part  of  the  nature  which  God  has  given  us  ? 
And  does  not  common-sense  tell  us  that  a  man  without 
ambition  to  succeed  and  to  excel  is  anything  but  a  lofty 
specimen  of  humanity  ?  It  is  only  necessary  to  take 
care  that  the  ambition  to  excel  be  not  the  highest  am- 
bition of  our  life.  Or  take  the  widespread  and  well-nigh 
universal  desire  to  make  money.  This  is  more  difficult  to 
deal  with,  inasmuch  as  there  is  such  a  fearful  tendency  to 
excess  in  this  direction.  But  even  here  it  is  very  evident 
that  the  same  position  may  be  taken,  namely,  that  in  its 
proper  place  of  subordination  it  is  right  enough.  Acccord- 
ing  to  the  laws  which  God  has  appointed  to  regulate  society, 
it  is  necessary  not  only  that  each  man  should  earn  his  liv- 
ing by  his  industry,  but  that  some  men  should  earn  more 
than  their  living.  This  is  necessaiy,  not  only  that  there 
may  be  a  surplus  for  those  that  cannot  earn  their  living, 
but  also  for  the  creation  of  capital.  All  who  have  given  any 
thought  to  the  subject  are  aware  that  there  could  be  no  pro- 
gress in  civilisation  without  capital.  Just  as  separate  capital 
is  needed  for  a  separate  business,  so  for  the  general  business 

*  "  He  did  God's  will ;  to  him  all  one 
If  on  the  earth  or  in  the  sun." 

— EOBEKT  BeOWNIXG. 


THE   SOUL    OF    BUSINESS.  1 97 

of  society  tlie  accumulation  of  capital  is  absolutely  necessary. 
It  is  therefore  manifest  that  it  is  God's  will  that  some  men 
at  least  should  make  more  than  they  need  for  their  personal 
and  family  expenses,  and  accordingly  He  has  implanted  in 
us  the  desire  corresponding  to  that  necessity — a  desire, 
therefore,  which  may  be  gratified  in  moderation  without 
interfering  with  the  supreme  devotion  of  the  heart  to  God. 
As  to  the  second  table  of  the  Law,  we  have  already 
seen,  in  dealing  with  the  scientific  objection,  that  self  is 
not  excluded — "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 
self;" and,  further,  that  this,  being  the  second  command- 
ment, must  not  be  dealt  with  as  if  it  stood  alone,  but 
must  be  looked  on  as  modified  by  the  first.  But  a  few 
words  may  be  necessary  to  illustrate  the  practical  effect 
of  this.  Take  the  familiar  case  of  giving  alms  to  a  lusty 
beggar.  If  we  had  only  the  second  part  of  the  law  of 
love  to  guide  us,  we  might  feel  constrained  to  reason 
after  the  manner  of  Mr.  Spencer :  *  "  If  I  love  this  beggar 
as  myself,  how  can  I  refuse  him  at  least  half  of  the  money 
in  my  pocket  ?"  But  immediately  the  higher  duty  comes 
in,  and  with  it  the  thought,  "  If  I  were  to  do  this  I  should 
be  disregarding  my  duty  to  God ;  I  should  be  going  con- 
trary to  what  I  know  to  be  His  will,  who  says  that  '  If 
any  man  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat;'  and  not 
only  so,  but  I  should  be  violating  the  spirit  of  the  second 
commandment  itself;  for  I  should  be  doing,  not  a  benefit, 
but  a  wrong  to  my  lazy  neighbour."  God  is  Light  as  well 
as  Love;  there  is  "lucidity"  as  well  as  "sweetness"  in 
His  law  ;  and  we  must  respect  those  ordinances  of  His, 
which  are  written  on  society  and  enforced  in  His  provi- 
dence. The  application  of  the  principle  is  specially  obvious 
in  the  sphere  of  charity ;  but  it  is  quite  as  applicable  to 
business  relations.     Does  any  one  say,  "  Because  I  must 

*  See  ''  Data  of  Ethics,"  p.  199. 


1 98  THE    SOUL    OF   BUSINESS. 

love  my  neighbour  as  myself,  I  must  therefore  supply 
him  with  goods  at  half  their  value  ;  or,  after  he  has  got 
them,  let  him  off  with  paying  half  the  price  ?"  My  reply 
is,  that  this  would  be  entirely  inconsistent  with  my  duty 
to  God,  and  even  to  my  neighbour,  as  set  forth  in  the 
law  of  love.  It  would,  indeed,  be  a  treble  wrong,  or 
rather  a  wrong  in  every  conceivable  direction.  It  would 
not  only  be  bad  for  myself  (and  the  law  forbids  me  to 
wrong  myself,  if  it  forbids  me  to  wrong  my  neighbour ; 
for  it  is  as  myself  that  I  am  required  to  love  him),  but 
it  would  be  bad  for  the  man  with  whom  I  was  doing 
business,  and  bad  for  society,  and  manifestly  against  the 
will  of  Him  who  "  rules  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth,"  and  is  "  not  the  Author  of  confusion,"  but  of  order. 
As  we  remarked  at  the  beginning,  righteousness  is  the 
broad  and  deep  foundation  of  the  law  of  Christ ;  and  the 
law  of  love  comes  in  to  reinforce  it  and  to  supplement  it, 
to  animate  it  with  life,  to  fill  it  with  soul ;  but  never  in 
any  degree  to  abrogate,  annul,  or  supersede  it. 

Or  we  may  put  it  in  another  way,  which  may  be  still 
more  obvious.  When  rightly  looked  at,  all  legitimate 
business,  honestly  done,  is  done  on  the  principle  of  loving 
one's  neighbour  as  one's  self.  Take  the  familiar  case  of 
buying  at  a  certain  cost,  aud  selling  at  an  advanced  price. 
AVhy  is  the  buyer  willing  to  pay  a  higher  price  than  the 
seller  has  paid  ?  Because  of  the  benefit  the  seller  does 
him  in  the  shape  of  saving  him  the  trouble  of  going  a 
distance  to  get  what  he  wants,  or  the  waste  of  buying  a 
larger  quantity  than  he  needs,  or  some  such  convenience. 
It  is  far  better,  manifestly,  for  a  resident  of  London  to 
buy  a  small  piece  of  Manchester  goods  at  a  small  advance 
in  price  than  it  would  be  to  go  himself  to  the  manufac- 
turer in  Manchester,  and  then  find  that  to  get  any  he 
must  take  ten  or  a  hundred  times  what  he  wants.      It 


THE    SOUL    OF   BUSINESS.  1 99 

would,  In  fact,  be  better  for  him  to  pay  a  very  much 
larger  advance  than  he  does  pay  rather  than  to  be  left 
to  his  own  resources  in  the  matter.  But  here  the  laws 
which  regulate  trade  come  in  to  cut  down  the  advance  to 
the  lowest  point,  so  that  he  pays  very  little  indeed  for  a 
great  service.  And  it  may  be  remarked,  in  passing,  that 
few  of  us  realise  at  how  little  cost  we  obtain  the  very 
needful  and  valuable  services  which  are  done  us  on  all 
hands  by  our  neighbours.  According  to  the  working 
of  the  laws  just  referred  to,  it  comes  to  pass  that  the 
services  rendered  by  the  different  persons  engaged  in 
business  are  set  off  against  each  other  in  very  fair  equi- 
valents ;  so  that,  if  only  sti-ict  honesty  be  observed,  each 
man  gets,  in  the  main,  just  what  his  services  are  worth 
— no  more,  no  less.  And,  therefore,  in  demanding  and 
accepting  the  fair  market  value  of  what  he  has  to  offer, 
he  is  literally  acting  upon  the  principle  of  loving  his 
neighbour  as  himself  If  he  were  dishonestly  to  ask 
more,  he  would  be  sinfully  turning  the  balance  on  his 
own  side ;  if  he  were  foolishly  to  take  less,  he  would  be 
unwisely  turning  the  balance  on  his  neighbour's  side. 
And  this  shows,  by  the  way  (it  is  well  to  note  it  as  we 
pass),  that  it  is  just  as  contrary  to  the  law  of  Christ  for 
the  buyer  to  endeavour  by  undue  means  to  beat  down 
the  seller  as  it  is  for  the  seller  to  try  to  get  more  than 
its  worth  for  what  he  sells.  But  the  point  we  are 
making  now  is  this,  that  in  fair  buying  and  selling  a 
man  is  carrying  out  as  nearly  as  possible  the  Divine  law, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  And  the 
same  principle  applies  to  all  kinds  of  business  where 
services  are  rendered  and  equivalents  accepted  either  as 
wages  or  as  profit. 

But  it  manifestly  does  not  apply  to  what  is  familiarly 
known  as   "  speculative "   business.      I   know  that  it  is 


200  THE    SOUL    OF    BUSINESS. 

very  difficult  to  draw  the  line   between  legitimate  and 
speculative  business,  and  that  one  who  is  not  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  what  he  is  talking  about  must  be  very 
chary  of  condemning  this  or  that  way  of  making  money, 
which  may  seem  to  him  to  partake  of  the  nature  of  specu- 
lation.     But  there  can  be  no  mistake  in  standing  by  the 
manifest  application,  in  all  cases,  of  "  the  royal  law  accord- 
ing to  the  Scripture."      This  law,  as  we  have  seen,  does 
not  forbid  us  to  enrich  ourselves  in  the  ordinary  transac- 
tions of  exchange ;  for  in  these  the  gain  of  A  is  not  the 
loss  of  B,  but  the  price  which  B  willingly  pays  for  the 
benefit  A  does  him.      But  it  does  forbid  our  enriching 
ourselves  at  the  expense  of  others ;  as,  for  example,  is 
manifestly  done  when  an  "  operator  "  in  grain  makes  an 
artificial  scarcity  in  the  market  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
the  price.      In  the  legitimate  transaction  the  profit  of  the 
grain  merchant  is  the  equivalent  he  receives  for  the  benefit 
of  bringing  the  grain  to  those  who  need  it ;  in  the  other 
case,   his    profit    arises  from   the    loss    inflicted    on    the 
community  by  his  holding  it  back  from  them.      In  all 
ordinary  business  transactions  a  man  simply  gets  a  fair 
equivalent  for  certain  services  he  renders  to  his  neigh- 
bour;   and  in  rendering  the  service,  and  accepting  the 
equivalent,  he  is,  as  we  have  seen,  manifestly  keeping  the 
law  which  tells  him  to  love  his  neighbour  as  himself; 
but  when  his  gain,  instead  of  being  a  reward  for  services 
rendered,  is  a  penalty  paid  by  his  neighbour  for   a  dis- 
service which  he  has  done  him,  it  is  seen  to  be  a  serious 
violation  of  the  law  of  love. 

Thus  we  find  that  the  law  of  Christ,  while  it  would 
undoubtedly  put  an  end  to  some  ways  of  making  money, 
which  public  opinion  only  too  feebly  censures,  is  the  very 
life  and  soul  of  all  legitimate  business. 

Now  that  objections  to  the  law  of  Christ  have  been 


THE    SOUL    OF   BUSINESS.  201 

dealt  with,  and  its  practicability  maintained,  it  remains 
to  show  the  immense  advantage  of  laying  stress  upon  the 
higher  rather  than  on  the  lower  law.  We  have  already 
indicated  in  a  general  way  the  advantage  of  the  method 
of  Christ  as  one  that,  instead  of  merely  lopping  oflF  the 
branches,  cuts  away  the  roots  of  the  tree  of  evil — one 
that  prefers  to  deal  with  the  deep-seated  disease  rather 
than  to  confine  attention  to  the  treatment  of  its  outward 
symptoms ;  but  we  may  now  look  at  it  somewhat  more 
closely. 

The  causes  which  lead  to  commercial  immorality  are 
mainly  these  two — covetousness  and  extravagance :  too 
great  eagerness  to  get,  and  too  great  eagerness  to  spend. 
Each  of  them  is  a  spring  of  action,  which  is  apt  to  grow 
iuto  a  habit,  urging  on,  with  ever-increasing  force,  him 
who  indulges  it.  Each  of  them  is  "  a  stream  of  ten- 
dency," which  not  only  readily  becomes  an  idolatry,  but 
which,  when  it  has  engrossed  the  life,  is  very  apt  to  sweep 
away  the  barriers  in  its  path.  Conscience  is  a  strong- 
barrier  to  resist  the  outbreak  of  the  evil  waters  ;  but  when 
the  whole  force  of  a  man's  life  presses  in  one  direction, 
the  barrier  needs  to  be  very  strong  indeed — far  stronger 
than  it  is,  or  can  be  expected  to  be,  in  the  average  man 
— not  to  give  way  at  some  point ;  not  to  admit  of  little 
leakages  here  and  there,  which  speedily  prepare  the  way 
for  something  more  serious.  Now  what  does  the  law  of 
Christ  do  ?  It  does  not  simply  fortify  the  barrier :  it 
does  that,  but  it  does  a  great  deal  more  ;  it  diverts  the 
stream  of  evil  tendency,  or  rather  so  changes  it  that  it 
becomes  a  stream  of  most  blessed  tendency.  It  insists  on 
a  man's  pouring  his  life  into  another  channel  altogether. 
It  calls  upon  him  to  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
His  righteousness."  Thus  it  not  only  keeps  him  from 
directing  his  life  in  such  a  way  as  to   press   and  surge 


202  THE    SOUL    OF   BUSINESS. 

against  the  barrier  wliicli  conscience  erects  against  evil, 
but  it  aims  to  make  conscience  itself  a  master  passion 
of  the  soul  by  insisting  that  he  shall  "  seek  first  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  His  righteousness  ; "  and  if  he  do 
this,  if  he  even  honestly  try  it,  it  is  impossible  for  his 
eagerness  to  get  rich  to  gain  dangerous  headway.  He 
is  not  only  fortified  against  temptation,  but  kept  out  of 
temptation's  way — kept  in  a  region  of  life  where  the 
temptation  to  anything  like  deceit  or  dishonesty  cannot 
reach  him. 

It  is  much  the  same  with  the  other  great  source  of 
temptation,  namely,  extravagance.  The  law  of  Christ, 
indeed,  allows  in  moderation  the  desire  to  enjoy  the 
good  things  of  this  life ;  but  it  not  only  forbids  a  man 
to  live  beyond  his  income,  which  the  lowest  code  of 
honesty  forbids  him  to  do,  but  it  keeps  him  far  away 
from  the  vulgar  motives  to  extravagance.  The  com- 
monest of  these,  namely,  ostentation,  it  utterly  con- 
demns, making  it  a  first  duty  to  be  "  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart."  It  renders  a  life  of  mere  self-indulgence  impos- 
sible to  all  who  will,  wath  any  honesty,  try  to  keep 
either  its  first  or  its  second  commandment ;  to  say 
nothing  of  the  attempt  to  keep  them  both,  without 
which,  indeed,  no  one  can  fairly  consider  himself  a 
Christian  at  all. 

The  attemjyt,  we  say ;  for  it  is  very  important  to 
notice  that  the  mere  attempt,  if  only  it  be  an  honest 
and  earnest  one,  to  keep  the  law  of  love  will  be  almost 
an  absolute  safeguard  against  any  form  of  dishonesty. 
For  the  objection  might  be  urged,  "  It  is  all  very  well 
to  say  that  if  a  man  only  loved  God  supremely,  and  his 
neighbour  as  himself,  dishonesty  would  be  impossible ; 
but,  seeing  that  no  man  can  do  either  the  one  or  the 
other  perfectly,  what  does  it  all  amount  to  ?  "      But  what 


THE    SOUL    OF   BUSINESS,  203 

we  say  is,  not  that  the  perfect  keeping  of  the  law  of 
love,  which  no  one  can  do,  but  the  honest  attempt  to 
keep  it,  which  any  one  can  make,  will  be  as  near  a  safe- 
guard as  it  is  possible  to  come  to  with  human  nature 
as  it  is.  The  same  could  not  be  said  of  honesty.  If  a 
man's  honesty,  indeed,  be  absolute,  perfect,  immovable, 
his  conscience  above  the  reach  of  all  blinding,  or  blunt- 
ing, or  befogging  influences,  then  it  is  quite  certain  that 
such  an  one  will  not  fall  into  any  doubtful  practices. 
But  of  what  man  living  can  this  be  said  ?  Or  if  it  can 
be  said  of  any,  of  how  very  few ! 

In  order  to  see  this  more  clearly,  let  us  distinguish 
between  a  principle  and  a  passion.  Principle  has  the 
strength  of  an  embankment,  or  a  rock,  as  the  case  may  be  : 
passion  has  the  force  of  a  stream,  or  a  torrent,  as  the  case 
may  be.  Principle  belongs  to  the  statics,  passion  to  the 
dynamics  of  character.  Now  common  morality  looks  to 
principle,  and  in  this  it  does  wisely ;  but  it  neglects 
passion,  and  in  this  it  falls  fatally  short.  It  is  quite 
sound  on  the  statics  of  virtue,  but  its  dynamics  it  almost 
utterly  ignores;  and  just  as  running  water,  if  only  the 
current  be  strong  enough,  will  wear  away  a  strong  em- 
bankment, or  even  the  hardest  rock,  so,  if  the  passions 
be  allowed  to  get  force  sufficient,  they  will  carry  away  any 
mere  principles  that  may  stand  in  their  way.  Now  the 
law  of  Christ  does  not  neglect  the  statics  of  character  ;  but 
it  gives  special  attention  to  its  dynamics  :  it  makes  much 
of  principle,  quite  as  much  as  any  moralist  cau  ;  but  it 
makes  still  more  of  the  passions  of  the  heart.  It  does 
not  at  all  attempt  to  suppress  the  enthusiasm  and  energy 
of  human  nature,  but  it  turns  it  in  a  direction  in  which 
it  can  safely  flow  in  all  its  strength — turns  it  in  a  direction 
in  which  the  more  energy,  and  ardour,  and  enthusiasm, 
the   better   for   the   man   himself,  and   for   all   interests 


204  THE    SOUL    OF   BUSINESS. 

concerned.  It  forbids  the  disastrous  passion  for  money ; 
it  forbids  the  similarly  disastrous  passion  for  display ;  it 
calls  out  a  passion  for  God  and  His  righteousness. 

We  have  already  seen  how  our  Saviour  deals  with  the 
ordinary  business  of  life  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ; 
but  before  He  comes  to  it,  He  says,  "  After  this  manner 
pi'ay  ye,"  and  then  furnishes  a  prayer,  and  such  a  prayer  ! 
The  first  petition,  "  Hallowed  be  Thy  name;  "  the  second 
petition,  "  Thy  kingdom  come  ;  "  the  third  petition,  '•  Thy 
will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven ; "  and  then,  and 
not  till  then,  the  petition  for  daily  bread,  expressed  not 
only  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  studied  moderation,  but 
in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  in  view  the  claim  of  our  neigh- 
bour— "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  :  "  a  prayer, 
therefore,  which  no  one  can  possibly  offer  in  sincerity 
without  at  least  trying  to  make  the  glory  of  God  his  chief 
ambition,  and  to  keep  all  selfish  desire  in  strict  subordina- 
tion, and  in  such  moderation  as  the  golden  rule  requires. 
Now,  may  it  not  be  asserted,  without  the  slightest  fear  of 
contradiction,  that  where  a  man  only  tried  to  live  a  life 
the  desires  of  which  are  represented  in  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
it  would  be  simply  impossible  to  issue  a  lying  adver- 
tisement ;  simply  impossible  to  make  or  encourage  the 
making  of  a  false  invoice  ;  simply  impossible  to  represent 
goods  as  better  than  they  really  are,  or  as  having  cost 
more  than  they  actually  did  cost  ?  Would  it  be  possible, 
think  you,  for  such  a  man  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
the  getting  up  of  a  bubble  company,  or  to  encourage  in 
any  way  the  risking  of  people's  money  l^y  holding  out 
hopes  of  dividend  which  he,  as  projector,  knows  to  be 
absurdly  extravagant  ?  Would  it  be  possible  for  such  an 
one  to  trade  on  other  people's  capital,  or  to  expose  the 
property  of  another  to  a  risk  to  which  that  other  had  not 
consented  ?      Would  it  be  possible  for  such   an  one   to 


THE    SOUL    OF    BUSINESS.  205 

tempt  Lis  neighbour  to  sin,  as  is  done  by  those  who  offer 
to  young  men  in  their  employ  commissions  on  amounts 
realised  from  the  sale  of  otherwise  unsaleable  stock,  with- 
out any  inquiry  as  to  the  means  by  which  the  said  stock 
has  been  got  rid  of?  Would  it  be  possible  for  such  an 
one  in  any  way  to  take  advantage  of  the  ignorance  or 
weakness  of  any  with  whom  his  business  led  him  to  deal, 
in  order  to  gain  an  unrighteous  end  ?  All  such  things 
would  manifestly  be  out  of  the  range  of  possibility  for  any 
man  who  put  even  the  smallest  degree  of  real  earnestness, 
day  by  day,  into  that  prayer  which  teaches  us  what  the 
deepest  desires  of  our  hearts  should  be. 

It  is  sadly  to  be  confessed  that  there  are  Christian 
people — so  called  at  least — among  the  number  of  those 
who  are  guilty  of  mean  and  dishonest  practices.  But 
among  these  there  is  not  a  single  case  of  a  Christian 
who  has  honestly  tried  to  make  it  the  habit  of  his  life 
to  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  His  righteousness." 
Many  of  them  may  be  in  the  daily  or  weekly  habit  of 
saying  the  Lord's  Prayer,  but  not  one  of  them  is  in  the 
habit  of  praying  it.  Without  the  slightest  fear  of  con- 
tradiction, I  assert,  that  wherever  a  so-called  Christian 
man  is  guilty  of  anything  approaching  to  dishonesty,  he 
is  not  one  of  those  who  try  to  regulate  their  conduct  by 
the  law  of  love,  but  one  who,  contenting  himself  with 
the  ordinary  code  of  morals,  has  allowed  his  passion  for 
money,  or  some  other  ungodly  lust,  to  master  him,  and 
to  scatter  his  feeble  morality  to  the  winds.  If  all  this 
be  true,  it  is  manifest  that  the  method  of  Christ  is  the 
method  which  this  age  still  needs,  and  sorely  needs ; 
that  what  is  wanted  is  not  so  much  more  homilies  on 
honesty  as  more  earnest  warnings  against  covetousness 
and  extravagance,  and  a  more  earnest  presentation  of 
that  Gospel  of  divine  love  which  will  touch  men's  hearts, 


206  THE    SOUL    OF    BUSINESS. 

and  lead  tliem  so  to  set  tlieir  affections  on  higher  and 
better  things  as  that  they  will  count  no  sacrifice  in  the 
lower  sphere  too  great  to  make  for  the  sake  of  main- 
taining "  a  conscience  void  of  offence  toward  God  and 
towai'd  men." 

I  do  not  believe  that  things  are  so  bad  in  the  world 
of  business  as  many  pessimists  imagine.  I  do  not  believe 
that  a  man  cannot  be  strictly  honest  without  suffering- 
loss.  I  believe  that  our  best  men  are,  in  the  main,  our 
most  successful  men.  I  cannot  believe  that  cheating 
and  lying  are  so  common  in  any  kind  of  respectable 
business  as  those  say  who  wish  to  justify  their  part  in 
such  practices ;  and  I  do  not  believe,  nor  do  I  think 
that  any  thoroughly  honest  man  believes,  that  deceit  and 
falsehood  are  necessary  in  any  shape,  however  veiled  and 
disguised,  for  success  in  any  legitimate  business.  Yet 
the  state  o£  things  is  such  that  there  is  a  grand  field 
for  witnessing  for  Christ  in  the  world  of  business.  The 
ranks  of  "  the  noble  army  of  the  mai-tyrs  "  are  not  yet 
full.  The  demand  to  "  take  up  the  cross  "  for  Christ's 
sake  has  not  yet  been  withdrawn.  And  though,  in  the 
eyes  of  men,  there  is  not  the  same  show  of  heroism  when 
a  young  man  gives  up  a  good  situation,  without  any 
prospect  of  another,  for  the  sake  of  truth,  as  if  he  had 
gone  cheerfully  to  the  stake  in  the  same  noble  cause, 
there  may  be  quite  as  much  of  the  reality  of  it,  quite  as 
much  that  is  noble,  and  admirable,  and  heroic  in  the 
sight  of  God.  Christ  needs  many  witnesses  in  the  wide 
field  of  business ;  men  that  will  witness  to  Him  in  the 
heights  of  success ;  men  also  that  will  witness  for  Him 
not  only  in  the  depths  of  failure,  but  by  their  willingness 
to  fail  for  His  sake ;  men  that  are  willing  to  "  suffer  the 
loss  of  all  things  ;  "  men  who  are  willing  to  go  through 
life  as  poor  as  Christ  Himself,  rather  than  do  any  single, 


THE    SOUL    OF  BUSINESS.  20/ 

smallest  act  at  variance  with  "  that  good,  and  acceptable, 
and  perfect  will  of  God  "  which  finds  expression  in  the 
law  of  Christ. 

Our  chief  object  has  been  to  show  that  the  inspiration 
of  Christian  principle  is  far  more  effective  than  the  re- 
straints of  moral  law  in  securing  commercial  morality  ; 
that  to  give  business  a  new  heart  and  soul  is  better  than 
to  attempt,  without  such  regeneration,  merely  to  repress 
its  disorders ;  and  having,  as  we  hope,  done  something  to 
make  this  evident,  we  shall  not  pursue  the  subject  further 
than  to  suggest  this  additional  thought,  which  might 
be  readily  developed :  that  not  only  is  the  method  of 
Christ  much  more  effective  in  securing  commercial  mo- 
rality, but  it  elevates  the  life  of  business  to  a  far  higher 
plane,  and  gives  it  a  nobility  and  grandeur  that  seldom 
enter  into  the  thoughts  of  those  who  look  at  it  from  the 
worldly  point  of  view ;  and  that  instead  of  its  being  a 
hindrance,  as  it  so  often  is,  to  the  development  of  the 
Christian  life,  it  might  be,  as  it  is  so  often  proved  to  be, 
as  fine  a  field  as  any  other  for  its  manifestation  and 
growth  up  to  "  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness 
of  Christ."  And  so  it  might  be  shown  that  if  only  the 
law  of  Christ  were  faithfully  and  fully  carried  into  the 
ordinary  business  of  life,  we  should  see  on  every  hand  a 
new  fulfilment  of  an  old  prophecy  :  "  The  parched  ground 
shall  become  a  pool,  and  the  thirsty  land  springs  of 
water  :  in  the  habitation  of  dragons,  where  each  lay,  shall 
be  grass,  with  reeds  and  rushes.  And  an  highway  shall 
be  there,  and  a  way,  and  it  shall  be  called  The  way  of 
holiness ;  the  unclean  shall  not  pass  over  it ;  but  it  shall 
be  for  those  :  the  wayfaring  men,  though  fools,  shall  not 
err  therein.  No  lion  shall  be  there,  nor  any  ravenous 
beast  shall  go  up  thereon ;  it  shall  not  be  found  there ; 
but  the  redeemed  shall  walk  there." 


XV. 


THE  PROPHET  HOSEA  ON  THE  CAUSE  AND 
CURE  OF  SOCIAL  EVILS. 

'^rHE  study  of  a  book  like  the  Prophecy  of  Hosea  is 
mainly  an  historical  study,  and  as  such  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly interesting;  and  those  who  read  it  with  any 
exercise  of  the  historical  imagination  must  be  impressed 
with  the  grandeur  of  this  great-souled  man,  so  stern  in 
his  denunciations  of  the  sins  and  follies  of  the  times,  and 
withal  so  tender  in  his  human  sympathies.  Though  for 
the  most  part  his  prophecy  is  a  trumpet-blast  against  the 
iniquities  of  the  time,  yet  throughout  it  there  is  a  thrill 
of  mother-love  which  is  ever  and  again  melting  his  mes- 
sage into  tones  of  deepest  pathos,  as  in  that  wonderful 
passage  in  the  eleventh  chapter  in  which  he  expresses  the 
yearning  of  the  Heavenly  Father's  heart  over  His  wander- 
ing one.  Listen  to  some  of  the  strains  of  it :  "  When 
Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him,  and  brought  my  son 
out  of  Egypt.  .  .  .  I  taught  Ephraim  also  to  walk,  taking 
them  by  the  arms  ;  and  yet  they  knew  not  it  was  I  that 
tended  them.  I  gently  led  them  on  with  human  cords, 
with  bands  of  love ;  I  was  to  them  as  one  that  from  the 
tired  ox  takes  oflF  the  yoke  and  offers  it  its  food.  .  .  . 
And  yet  my  people  are  bent  on  backsliding  from  me.  .  .  . 
How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim  ?  How  shall  I  let 
thee  perish,  Israel  ?  How  shall  I  make  thee  as  Admah  ? 
How  shall  I  set  thee   as  Zeboim  ?      My  heart  is  melted 


THE    PROPHET   HOSEA,    ETC.  209 

within  me,  my  compassions  are  kindled  together."  And 
yet  it  is  this  loving,  tender-hearted  man,  who  sets  the 
trumpet  to  his  mouth,  and  regardless  of  the  storm  he  is 
raising  all  around  him,  delivers  his  soul  on  this  wise 
(chap.  V.)  :  "  Hear  ye  this,  0  priests  :  and  hearken,  ye 
house  of  Israel,  and  give  ye  ear,  0  house  of  the  King ; 
for  judgment  is  against  you,  because  ye  have  been  a 
snare  upon  Mizpah  and  a  net  spread  upon  Tabor."  Verily 
it  does  one's  soul  good  to  enter  into  sympathy  with  a  noble 
hero  like  this  great  prophet  of  Israel. 

We  have  said  that  the  study  of  the  book  is  in  the  first 
place  an  historical  study,  and  its  immediate  interest  is  in 
giving  us  a  picture  of  the  times.  But,  like  all  other 
Scripture  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  it  "  is  profitable  for 
doctrine  and  for  reproof,  and  for  correction  and  for  in- 
struction in  righteousness."  And  this  general  use  of  it 
seems  to  be  especially  indicated  in  the  closing  verses  : 
"  Who  is  wise,  and  he  shall  understand  these  things  ? 
prudent,  and  he  shall  know  them  ?  for  the  ways  of  the 
Lord  are  right,  and  the  just  shall  walk  in  them ;  but 
transgressors  shall  fall  therein." 

There  are  some  very  obvious  applications  of  the  pro- 
phecy which  every  one  must  make,  because  they  are 
written  so  large  that  they  cannot  be  missed.  There  is, 
perhaps,  no  part  of  the  whole  Bible  where  there  is  such 
boundless  encouragement  to  each  and  every  sinner  that 
repenteth,  to  each  and  every  backslider  that  desires  to 
return  to  the  Lord  his  God.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a 
worse  case  than  that  of  Israel.  Eead  their  history  during 
the  half-century  which  preceded  their  final  overthrow  by 
the  Assyrian  armies ;  or  read  such  an  indictment  as  that 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  chapter  of  this  prophecy : 
"  Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  ye  children  of  Israel ;  for 
the  Lord  hath  a  controversy  with  the  inhabitants  of  the 

0 


2  10  THE   PROPHET    HOSE  A    ON   THE 

land,  because  tliere  is  no  trutla,  nor  mercy,  nor  knowledge 
of  God  in  the  land.  By  swearing,  and  lying,  and  killing, 
and  stealing,  and  committing  adultery,  they  break  out ; 
and  blood  toucheth  blood."  And  yet,  in  dealing  with 
this  people — this  jjcojyle,  remember — while  thei'e  is  no 
paltering  with  their  sin  or  weak  overlooking  of  it,  but 
the  most  scathing  exposure  and  denunciation  of  it,  with 
darkest  threats  of  vengeance  unless  they  will  repent,  yet 
there  is  an  outpouring  of  heart  which  exhausts  the 
highest  forms  of  human  affection — the  husband  yearning 
over  his  wife,  the  mother  weeping  for  her  child.  What 
do  we  learn  from  all  this  ? — that  there  is  no  love  on  earth, 
not  the  highest  and  purest  and  most  self-forgetful  and 
most  unconquerable,  that  is  sufficient  to  give  us  an  idea 
how  our  Father  in  heaven  loves  even  the  greatest  sinners, 
and  longs  for  their  return  from  the  storm  and  darkness 
of  their  wandering  in  the  far  country  to  the  shelter  and 
comfort  and  wealth  of  His  home.  Are  there  those  who 
think  God  does  not  care  to  have  them  now,  because 
they  have  so  long  neglected  Him  and  rebelled  against 
Him  ?  Let  them  listen  to  these  tender  pleadings  of  the 
prophet,  and  be  assured  that  He  yearns  over  them.  Are 
there  backsliders  who  have  wearied  the  Lord  as  much  as 
Israel  did  ? — they  cannot  have  done  it  more — let  them 
listen  to  that  other  word  of  tender  pleading  and  gracious 
promise  :  "  O  Israel,  return  to  the  Lord  thy  God ;  for 
thou  hast  fallen  by  thine  iniquity.  Take  with  you  words 
and  turn  to  the  Lord ;  say  unto  Him,  Take  away  all 
iniquity,  and  receive  us  graciously.  ...  I  will  heal  their 
backsliding,  I  will  love  them  freely,  for  mine  anger  is 
turned  away  from  him,  I  will  be  as  the  dew  unto 
Israel ;  he  shall  grow  as  the  lily,  and  cast  forth  his  roots 
as  Lebanon.  His  branches  shall  spread,  and  his  beauty 
shall    be    as    the  olive-tree,  and  his    smell    as    Lebanon. 


CAUSE   AND    CUEE  OF    SOCIAL    EVILS.  2  I  I 

They  that  dwell  under  His  shadow  shall  return ;  they 
shall  revive  as  the  corn,  and  grow  as  the  vine ;  the  scent 
thereof  shall  be  as  the  wine  of  Lebanon." 

How  delightful  it  is  to  rest  in  these  last  words ! 
Reading  the  prophecy  of  Hosea  is  like  passing  through 
a  stormy  day — great  storms  of  thunder,  lightning,  rain, 
and  hail,  with  glints  of  sunlight  iu  between,  all  the 
more  beautiful  by  contrast ;  for  never  does  sunshine  seem 
so  glorious  as  when  it  breaks  out  between  storms — but 
when  the  day  of  storm  is  over,  at  evening-time  it  is  light ; 
the  clouds  are  cleared  away ;  and  in  the  night  which 
follows  (for  night  did  follow,  Israel  did  not  return ;  the 
Assyrian  came,  and  Israel  was  carried  away  into  capti- 
vity), in  the  night  which  sets  iu,  the  stars  of  promise  are 
left  shining  in  the  sky.  And  the  morning  broke  again, 
when  a  Greater  than  Hosea  came,  repeating  in  tones 
still  more  tender  the  old  invitation,  the  old  promise :  "  0 
Israel,  return !  "  "  /  will  heal  thy  backsliding,  I  will 
love  thee  freely,  for  mine  anyer  is  turned  away." 

These  are  some  of  the  very  obvious  applications  of  the 
book.  But  it  may  be  well  to  refer  to  some  others  that 
perhaps  need  a  little  more  thought.  Of  this  kind  are  the 
applications  of  the  prophecy  to  the  social  difficulties 
and  evils  of  the  day.  It  cannot  be  said,  indeed,  that  our 
position  as  a  nation  is  like  that  of  Israel  in  those  days 
when  she  was  tottering  to  her  fell.  The  evils  among 
them  had  reached  such  a  height  that  they  were  threaten- 
ing her  very  existence,  to  which  indeed  they  did  soon  after 
put  an  end.  We  certainly  are  not  of  those  who  think  that 
we  have  come  to  a  pass  like  that.  And  yet  the  same,  or 
very  similar,  evils  to  those  which  proved  the  ruin  of 
Israel  exist  among  us  to  a  deplorable  degree — not  yet, 
as  we  believe,  threatening  our  very  existence,  but  cer- 
tainly weakening  us^  and  a  constant  source  of  danger  and 


212       THE  PROPHET  HOSEA  ON  THE 

continual  disgrace.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  pro- 
phecy will  know  what  we  mean  when  we  say  that  evil  with 
us  is  at  the  moth  stage,  not  yet  at  the  lion  stage.  It  will  be 
remembered  how  in  the  fifth  chapter  these  two  stages  are 
spoken  of.  The  moth  stage  is  when  evil  keeps  eating  like  a 
canker  into  the  vitals  of  a  people,  but  where  there  is  nothing 
or  very  little  to  attract  attention  ;  no  noise,  nothing  to 
alarm  ;  the  mischief  done  in  secret  and  on  a  much  more 
serious  scale  than  is  apt  to  be  supposed,  as  every  one 
knows  to  be  the  case  with  the  ravages  of  the  moth.  But 
let  the  moth  stage  go  on,  let  corruption  increase  among  a 
people,  and  presently  the  roar  of  the  lion  will  be  heard, 
there  will  be  tumult  and  commotion,  there  will  be  the 
outbreak  of  open  rebellion  against  the  powers  that  be,  on 
earth  and  in  heaven  too.  Wherever  there  are  the  ravages 
of  the  moth  in  society  there  is  danger  of  the  breaking 
forth  of  the  beast  of  prey,  of  which  we  have,  indeed,  some 
indications  in  our  own  times  ;  not,  indeed,  of  the  very 
serious  nature  that  some  timid  people  suppose,  for  these 
outbreaks  *  in  Trafalgar  Square  and  Hyde  Park  are  mere 
surface  explosions,  blazings  of  light  chips  and  straws,  and 
not  volcanic  fires,  as  some  foreign  newspapers  represent 
— still,  they  do  give  some  idea  of  the  danger  which 
threatens.  And,  by  the  bye,  it  is  interesting  to  notice 
that  in  Hosea's  time  there  evidently  had  been  Trafalgar 
Square  meetings,  only  less  moderate  in  tone ;  for  it  was 
not  work  those  people  were  demanding,  but  wages  without 
work,  as  would  appear  from  a  passage  in  the  seventh 
chapter,  where  it  is  said,  "  They  assemble  themselves  for 
corn  and  wine ;  they  rebel  against  Me." 

Now  the  prophet  Hosea  has  it  for  his  great  object 
throughout  to  show  the  cause  and  the  cure  of  all  these 
evils,  which  began  by  eating  like  a  moth  and  ended  by 
*  lu  the  spring  of  iSSS. 


CAUSE    AND    CURE    OF   SOCIAL    EVILS.  213 

tearing  like  a  lion.  The  cause  is  unfaitlifulness  to  God, 
and  the  cure  is  returning  to  Him  with  the  whole  heart. 
He  is  continually  showing  them  that  what  they  have  put 
in  place  of  the  God  whom  they  have  cast  off  proves,  not 
their  safety,  as  they  supposed,  but  their  destruction.  There, 
for  instance,  was  the  great  stroke  of  policy  by  which 
Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat  sougfht  to  strenfythen  the 
Northern  kingdom — the  setting  up  of  the  calves  at  Bethel 
and  at  Dan,  to  keep  the  people  from  being  attracted  to 
Jerusalem,  and  the  rival  kingdom  of  the  South  of  which 
it  was  the  capital.  Thus  Samaria  sought  to  make  herself 
strong  against  Jerusalem  by  casting  off  the  God  of  their 
fathers,  and  making  sanctuaries  of  their  own ;  and  this 
sin  of  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat  was  never  given  up  all 
through  the  history  of  Israel.  What  has  Hosea  to  say 
about  this  foundation-stone  of  the  national  policy  ?  Does 
he  keep  quiet  about  it,  as  too  dangerous  a  subject  to 
touch  ?  He  has  a  great  deal  to  say  about  it  again  and 
again  throughout  the  prophecy ;  but  nowhere  is  there 
more  vigour  in  his  tone  than  when  he  puts  it  thus  :  "  Thy 
calf,  0  Samaria,  hath  cast  thee  off ! " 

Has  modern  society  no  calf  ?  Aaron,  we  remember, 
set  the  example  of  calf- worship ;  and  we  cannot  forget 
how  Moses  spoke  of  it  when  he  came  down  from  the 
mountain  :  "  Oh,  this  people  have  committed  a  great  sin  ; 
they  have  made  them  a  god — of  gold."  Does  not  modern 
society  make  a  god  of  gold  ?  Is  not  that  "  covetousness 
which  is  idolatry  "  a  national  vice  ?  And  when  social 
discontent  manifests  itself,  when  pauperism  threatens  to 
increase,  with  its  attendant  evils,  there  are  many  who  can 
think  of  no  other  way  of  meeting  it  than  by  appealing  to 
the  god  of  gold  :  if  only  the  money  of  the  rich  could 
be  got  hold  of  and  distributed  among  the  poor  !  And 
yet  there  is  nothing  so  demoralising  as  the  mere  distribu- 


214       THE  PEOPHET  HOSEA  ON  THE 

tion  of  money,  especially  if  it  have  in  the  least  degree 
the  appearance  of  blackmail.  Even  when  it  is  given  in 
genuine  charity,  if  nothing  else  is  done  than  the  mere 
distribution  of  money,  it  is  apt  to  do  far  more  harm  than 
good.  It  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that  even  "  The  Mansion- 
House  Fund,"  excellent  as  was  its  intention,  did  more 
harm  than  good  on  the  whole.  No,  no  ;  money  alone  is  of 
no  use,  mostly  worse  than  useless ;  money,  of  course,  is 
needful  for  all  good  works  that  are  done,  or  can  be  set 
on  foot  for  the  elevation  and  improvement  of  the  people ; 
but  to  make  it  a  mere  matter  of  getting  or  taking  money 
from  one  class  and  giving  it  over  to  another  is  a  delusion, 
and  if  carried  out  by  force  would  be  ruin  to  society. 
Gold  in  itself  works  no  cure.  Its  uselessness  seems  even 
to  mock  those  who  in  their  hearts  have  regarded  it  as 
almighty.      "Thy  calf,  0  Samaria,  hath  cast  thee  ofifl" 

Israel  had  a  calf  at  Dan  as  well  as  at  Bethel.  The 
calf  at  Bethel  was  in  the  extreme  south,  as  near  to  Jeru- 
salem as  possible.  The  calf  at  Dan  was  in  the  far  north, 
as  far  from  the  temple  of  God  as  possible.  Has  modern 
society  a  calf  at  Dan  as  well  ?  The  giving  of  money  is 
something  which  lies  very  near  to  the  sacred  territory  of 
true  Christianity ;  for  it  has  the  appearance  of  charity, 
though  genuine  charity  it  is  not,  unless  it  be  accom- 
panied by  that  thoughtful  love  which  is  quite  wanting 
in  the  indiscriminate  giving  of  which  we  have  been  speak- 
ing. Still,  it  lies  near  enough  to  it  to  be  often  con- 
founded with  it,  often  seen  in  the  same  line  as  looked  at 
from  the  hill  of  Samaria.  But  suppose  we  travel  away 
in  the  other  direction,  away  from  all  connection  with 
Christianity,  away  to  the  north  ;  we  find  the  peoj)le  there 
gathered  round  another  idol,  which  has  the  name  of 
Natural  Law.  Their  trust  is  in  the  laws  of  Evolution, 
working  through  the  struggle  for  existence  to  the  sur- 


CAUSE    AND    CURE    OF    SOCIAL    EVILS.  21 5 

vival  of  the  fittest.  And  tlie  great  effort  of  these  people 
is  to  bring  man  and  all  that  concerns  him  under  the 
stern  operation  of  that  law.  They  may  not,  indeed,  trouble 
themselves  much  about  social  questions,  but  the  whole 
drift  of  their  teaching  is  to  consign  everything  to  the 
interaction  of  great  forces  which  work  out  their  own 
ends  without  any  help  or  comfort  from  above.  And,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  is  not  business  carried  on  very  much 
according  to  the  idea  of  these  people  ?  We  ask  business 
men,  Is  not  business  becoming  more  and  more  a  struggle 
for  existence  with  the  survival  of  the  strongest — com- 
petition so  keen  everywhere  that  the  weak  must  go  to 
the  wall  ?  And  how  does  it  work  ?  Its  working  can 
be  best  seen  where  it  has  had  a  fair  field  with  no  favour 
of  vested  rights  or  great  landed  proprietaries.  Ho^'^,  then, 
has  it  been  working  in  America  ?  It  has  tended  to  the 
building  up,  at  the  one  end  of  the  social  scale,  of  a  few 
colossal  fortunes,  perhaps  larger  accumulations  of  wealth 
in  the  hands  of  single  individuals  than  has  ever  been 
reached  even  under  laws  of  entail ;  at  the  other  end 
degradation  (in  the  slums  of  New  York,  for  example), 
quite  as  bad  as  the  worst  in  Loudon ;  and  between  the 
two  extremes  the  great  middle  class,  throughout  which 
there  is  ever  closer  and  closer  competition,  involving 
harder  and  harder  work  with  smaller  and  smaller  returns. 
Is  not  that  the  way  in  which  the  principle  of  every  man 
for  himself  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  with  the  survival 
of  the  strongest  and  the  pushing  of  the  weak  to  the 
wall — is  not  that  the  way  in  which  it  is  working  itself 
out  everywhere  ?  The  Northern  calf  is  no  better  than 
the  Southern  one. 

Well,  what  shall  we  do  ?  A  question  much  more 
easily  asked  than  answered.  But  there  is  some  help 
towards  an  answer  in  this  prophecy.     Let  us  endeavour 


2l6       THE  PROPHET  HOSEA  ON  THE 

to  follow  its  hints  a  little  further.  In  chapter  v.  I  3  we 
read  that  "  when  Ephraim  saw  his  sickness,  and  Judah 
saw  his  wound,  then  went  Ephraim  to  the  Assyrian,  and 
sent  to  King  Jareb :  yet  could  he  not  heal  you,  nor  cure 
you  of  your  wound."  King  Jareb  means,  as  is  seen  in 
the  margin,  one  who  will  contend,  who  will  use  the  rough- 
and-ready  remedy  of  force.  And  we  have  those  among 
us  who  think  that  King  Jareb  is  the  very  man.  They 
believe  in  doing  it  all  by  Act  of  Parliament,  registering 
the  decrees  of  King  Demos,  who  will  in  that  way  entitle 
himself  to  the  name  Jareb.  Now  legislation  can  do  a 
great  deal,  and  there  is  much  to  be  hoped  for  from  it  in 
the  way  of  amelioration,  and  of  redress  of  injustice  and 
of  grievances  ;  but  it  cannot  cure  society,  or  heal  it  of  its 
deadly  wounds.  There  are  many  things  needful  to  be 
done  that  cannot  be  done  by  force. 

There  are  many  reforms,  and  these  by  far  the  most 
needful  and  far-reaching  in  their  result,  which  can  only 
be  accomplished  by  the  diffusion  of  a  spirit  of  love ;  and 
this  is  only  possible  by  a  general  return  of  the  people  to 
the  Lord  their  God.  The  humanitarian  spirit  which  is 
shown  by  not  a  few  of  those  who  make  no  profession  of 
faith  in  God  is  much  to  be  commended  ;  but  it  never  can 
by  its  inherent  force  make  way  in  society.  To  flow  as 
a  fertilising  stream  through  the  waste  places  of  society, 
it  must  take  its  rise  in  the  high  mountains  of  divine 
faith  and  hope  and  love ;  the  nether  springs  of  human 
generosity  must  be  fed  by  the  upper  springs  of  divine 
grace.  And  this  is  the  reason  why  the  prophet  Hosea 
so  continually  reminds  the  people  that  the  only  hope  for 
better  days  is  to  return  to  the  Lord  their  God,  and  the 
prophet  Joel  sets  before  the  society  of  his  day  as  its  great 
hope,  "  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh."  That 
is  what  we  need  to-dav. 


CAUSE    AND    CURE    OF   SOCIAL   EVILS.  llj 

Let  us  try  to  indicate  how  it  would  work  in  a  particular 
case.  Our  hearts  have  been  harrowed  lately  by  hearing 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  matchmakers,  who  have  to  work 
so  terribly  hard  for  such  a  wretched  pittance.  Who  is 
to  blame  ?  "  The  firms  employing  them,"  you  say. 
Well,  go  to  one  of  the  firms  and  remonstrate,  and  what 
answer  do  you  get  ?  Something  like  this  perhaps  :  "  My 
good  friend,  there  is  no  one  who  would  be  more  willing 
to  halve  the  labour  and  double  the  pay  of  these  poor 
creatures ;  but  if  we  did  it  we  could  not  sell  our  matches. 
You  Christian  people  are  bound  always  to  have  things 
at  the  very  lowest  rate  at  which  it  is  possible  to  pi'oduce 
them,  and  this  is  the  result."  Thus  you  are  thrown 
back  on  the  universal  demand  for  excessive  cheapness  ; 
and  you  see  at  once  that  it  is  wrong.  Are  you  not 
ashamed  to  buy  a  bos  of  matches,  or  a  dozen  boxes 
rather,  at  the  miserable  rate  you  pay  for  them  ?  But 
what  can  you  do  ?  If  you  could  deal  directly  with  the 
poor  girls  who  make  them,  you  would  most  gladly  pay 
all  that  they  are  worth,  and  more  too ;  but  you  cannot ; 
you  cannot  get  at  them  in  the  way  of  business — by  pay- 
ing two  or  three  prices  to  the  shopkeeper  you  would  not 
do  the  poor  matchmakers  a  fraction  of  service.  And 
that  is  not  saying  anything  against  the  shopkeeper ;  for 
he  could  not,  however  willing  he  might  be,  send  the 
excess  that  you  had  paid  him  to  the  poor  girl  at  the 
cost  of  whose  life-blood  they  had  been  made. 

Perhaps  some  one  says,  "  Why  not  have  a  grand 
association  banded  together  to  pay  a  sufficient  price  for 
matches  ?  "  But  then  it  is  not  only  matches  that  are  too 
cheap.  There  are  a  thousand  things  for  which  we  pay 
less  than  we  should  ;  and  what  can  be  done  ?  It  is  evi- 
dent that  to  meet  the  case  we  are  thrown  back  on  the 
necessity  of  some  force   that   will   operate   all   through 


2l8       THE  PEOPHET  HOSEA  ON  THE 

society ;  and  it  cannot  be  external  force ;  it  is  no  use 
sending  to  King  Jareb ;  we  cannot  ask  Parliament  to  fix 
a  minimum  for  prices — the  veriest  tyro  in  social  science 
knows  that  is  out  of  the  question ;  we  must  have  a 
force  acting  on  society  through  its  heart,  a  force  which 
will  counteract  the  miserable  selfishness  that  always 
keeps  beating  prices  down.  AVe  need  a  force  operating 
on  society  in  such  a  way  that  a  match  manufacturer  (to 
keep  to  our  original  illustration)  might  pay  his  emjjioyds 
a  fair  remuneration  for  their  work,  charge  a  correspond- 
ing price  for  his  goods,  and  feel  sure  that  there  would  be 
no  less  demand  for  the  dear  matches  that  were  innocent 
of  blood  than  for  the  cheap  ones  that  were  not.  Now, 
where  can  we  get  such  a  force  ?  Only  from  above  ;  only 
from  God,  the  Father  r  ^  us  all,  through  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  alone  teaches  effectually  the  true  brotherhood 
of  man ;  not,  of  course,  by  the  mere  formal  assent  to 
His  teaching  which  is  given  by  all  those  who  call  them- 
selves Christians,  but  by  the  genuine,  living,  loving 
Christianity  which  would  be  the  result  of  the  outpour- 
ing of  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  The  enthusiasm  of  humanity 
will  never  do  it  alone ;  especially  in  these  days,  when 
the  social  system  is  so  complicated  that  we  never  look 
into  the  face  of  one  in  a  thousand  of  those  who  are  work- 
ing for  us.  Nothing  else  will  do  it  than  the  love  of  God 
shed  abroad  in  the  heai'ts  of  men  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
given  to  them.  If  this  Divine  love  were  diffused  all 
through  society,  there  would  be  no  need  of  appealing  to 
King  Jareb,  or  any  king  but  the  King  of  Love  Himself. 
The  calf  of  gold  would  be  destroyed ;  the  miserable  law 
of  natural  selection  based  on  the  struggle  for  existence 
and  survival  of  the  fittest  would  be  dominated  by  another 
law,  even  the  law  of  God,  as  summed  up  in  these  two 
golden  precepts  :   "  Thou  shalt   love  the  Lord  thy  God 


CAUSE    AND    CURE   OF    SOCIAL   EVILS.  219 

with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind — and  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself." 

Then  would  the  moth  perish,  then  would  the  canker 
disappear  from  our  civilisation ;  there  would  be  no  colos- 
sal fortunes,  beyond  all  reasonable  demand  of  capital  to 
carry  on  works  of  usefulness ;  and  at  the  other  end  of 
the  scale  there  would  be  no  more  destitution  than  could 
be  dealt  with  by  the  natural  outflow  of  private  benefi- 
cence. And  there  would  be  an  end  of  that  rigid  system 
of  close  competition,  which,  as  things  now  are,  is  forced 
even  upon  those  to  whom  it  is  most  uncongenial  by  the 
imperious  demand  for  cheapness,  and  the  determination 
of  some  to  take  advantage  of  this  demand  to  possess  them- 
selves of  the  business  which  belonged  to  their  neighbours. 
Then  we  should  begin  to  see  around  us  the  meaning  of 
these  old  words  of  promise  :  "  They  that  dwell  under  His 
shadow  shall  revive  as  the  corn  and  grow  as  the  vine." 

Well,  what  can  we  do  to  hasten  on  that  happy  day  ? 
(i.)  We  can  work  and  pray  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel, 
and  the  establishment  upon  the  earth  of  the  kingdom  of 
"righteousness,  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  This 
is  the  one  hope  of  society  as  of  the  individual.  (2.)  We 
can  in  all  possible  ways  show  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  in 
all  our  dealings  with  our  neighbours,  making  it  evident 
that  love,  not  selfishness,  is  the  mainspring  of  our  life. 
So  shall  we  best  help  to  hasten  on  the  day  when  society 
as  a  whole  shall  return  to  the  Lord  our  God,  and  men 
shall  find  that  "  His  going  forth  is  prepared  as  the  morn- 
ing " — the  morninsr  dawn  of  a  bris^hter,  better  dav. 


XVI. 
LAY  HELP  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

{A  Paper  read  at  the  Presbyterian  General  Council,  held  in  Belfast  in  1SS4.) 

''PHE  subject  is  not  a  new  one,  and  therefoi-e  it  is  not 
necessary  to  begin  at  the  beginning  of  it.  There 
are  certain  positions  that  may  be  fairly  assumed.  One 
is,  that  the  great  work  of  the  Church  is  to  win  the  world 
for  Christ — a  vast  aggressive  enterprise.  It  is  true  that 
there  is  much  to  be  done  by  the  Church,  important, 
necessary  work,  connected  with  its  support  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  its  affiairs ;  but  all  that  should  be  mere 
"  office  expenses  "  in  proportion  to  the  whole.  A  man  is 
not  idle  when  he  is  eating  or  dressing,  but  he  does  not 
count  these  exertions  into  the  business  of  the  day.  The 
work  of  the  Church  is  not  to  maintain  herself  and  ad- 
minister her  own  affairs,  but  to  "  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature." 

We  may  further  assume  that  the  responsibility  of  this 
great  enterprise  rests,  not  on  certain  individuals  in  the 
Church,  but  on  the  Church  as  a  whole,  and  that  there- 
fore each  individual  member  should  have  a  share  in  it. 
It  is  admitted,  of  course,  that  this  is  not  the  only  field 
of  Christian  service.  "  Whatever  we  do,  in  word  or  in 
deed,"  should  be  done  "  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ; " 
and,  accordingly,  the  Christian  mother  in  the  home,  the 
Christian  man  of  business  in  the  city,  all  Christians  in 


LAY  HELP  IN  CHUECH  WORK.       22  1 

whatever  capacity  tliey  serve,  have  the  right  to  be  con- 
sidered Christian  workers.  That  it  is  the  duty  of  all 
Christian  people  to  be  engaged  in  Christian  work,  in  this 
wide  sense  of  the  word,  has  always  been  admitted ;  but 
it  is  now  also  acknowledged  to  be  the  duty  and  privilege 
of  all  to  do  what  they  can  in  the  specific  work  of  the 
Church,  the  work  of  carrying  the  Gospel  to  all  who  need 
it.     We  may,  therefore,  assume  this  point  also. 

But  while  these  general  principles  may  be  fairly 
enough  assumed,  there  are  certain  applications  of  them 
which  need  consideration,  some  of  which  it  may  be  well 
to  state.  It  is  very  often  taken  for  granted  that  until  a 
congregation  is  self-supporting  it  need  have  little,  if  any- 
thing, to  do  with  what  may  be  called  the  out-door  work 
of  the  church.  It  is  supposed  to  be  necessary  for  a 
time  to  husband  its  resources.  This  may  seem  a  com- 
mon-sense policy,  but  it  is  not  a  Christian  one.  Let  us 
not  forget  what  the  Master  says,  and  repeats  so  often 
and  so  earnestly,  anent  husbanding  resources :  "  He  that 
will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  will  lose  his 
life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it."  This  is  the  foundation- 
principle  of  Christian  life.  And  can  it  be  that  the  Church, 
as  a  Church,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it  ?  Where  are  we 
to  seek  the  guiding  principles  of  the  New  Testament 
Church  if  not  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ?  Have, 
then,  weak  congregations  "  neither  part  nor  lot "  in  a 
certain  magnificent  passage  of  that  sermon,  of  which  the 
following  are  the  salient  points  :  "  Be  not  anxious  for 
your  life,  what  ye  shall  eat,  or  what  ye  shall  drink ;  nor 
yet  for  your  body,  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Is  not  the  life 
more  than  the  food,  and  the  body  than  the  raiment  ?  .  .  . 
But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  .  .  .  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 

Is  not  the  word  "  self-sustaininof "  too  lar^e  a  word 


222       LAY  HELP  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

in  our  ecclesiastical  vocabulary  ?  Are  not  many  congre- 
gations, strong  as  well  as  weak,  weak  as  well  as  strong, 
ready  to  die  of  saving  their  own  lives  ?  Think  of  the 
amount  of  energy,  of  real  life  and  work  as  well  as  money, 
absorbed  by  hundreds  of  our  congregations  in  the  mere 
struggle  to  house  themselves.  And  the  question  is  sug- 
gested, whether  all  that  is  really  needed  in  the  way  of 
church  building  and  the  maintaining  of  ordinances  would 
not  be  more  easily  reached  if  it  were  put  in  the  second 
place  instead  of  the  first,  if  the  order  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
were  made  the  order  of  Church  anxiety — first,  the  hallow- 
ing of  the  Divine  name,  the  coming  of  the  Divine  king- 
dom, the  doing  of  the  Divine  will  upon  the  earth ;  and 
then,  secondary  and  subordinate  to  these,  the  securing  of 
daily  bread. 

This  reminds  us,  that  even  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
Chui'ch,  represented  as  it  is  by  the  two  last  petitions  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  should  be  subordinate  to  the  general 
interests  of  the  kingdom,  represented  by  the  first  three. 
Not  that  spiritual  welfare  can  be  overestimated,  but  it  is 
subject  to  the  same  law  as  to  losing  and  saving.  In  the 
higher  sphere,  as  well  as  in  the  lower,  in  our  Church 
relations  too,  as  well  as  in  our  private  life,  we  should  think 
more  of  giving  than  of  getting,  more  of  work  than  of  food, 
more  of  edification  in  its  active  than  in  its  passive  sense. 
The  true  way  to  be  healthy  in  spiritual  as  well  as  in 
temporal  things  is,  to  give  ourselves  so  heartily  to  our 
work  that  both  the  food  itself  and  the  appetite  for  it 
come  to  us  without  special  thought  or  care.  And  so, 
ao-ain,  it  is  in  Church  life.  "  Satan  finds  some  mischief 
still  for  idle  hands  to  do ;  "  and  he  does  not  confine  his 
operations  to  the  outside  of  the  Church.  It  is  written 
that  "  Jeshurun "  (cveji  Jeshurun,  the  righteous  one) 
"  waxed  fat  and  kicked  ;"  from  which  the  lesson  plainly  is, 


LAY  HELP  m    CHURCH  WORK.        223 

Give  Jesliurun  more  work  to  do  of  a  legitimate  kind  ;  give 
him  more  worlv  to  do  with  "  feet  shod,"  as  they  ought  to 
be,  "  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace,"  and 
there  will  be  less  abnormal  use  of  his  heels.  Overfeeding 
and  underworking  is  unquestionably  an  evil  to  be  dreaded 
in  Church  life.  Has  not  Presbyterianism  in  the  past 
suffered  oftentimes  and  in  many  ways  from  a  plethora  of 
doctrine  in  proportion  to  practice,  of  sermons  in  pro- 
portion to  service  ?  And  by  "  service  "  here  we  do  not 
mean  "  divine  service  "  in  the  popular  English  sense — a 
very  misleading  expression,  from  the  New  Testament  point 
of  view  at  all  events.  In  the  House  of  God  it  is  not  we 
that  serve  Him  ;  it  is  He  that  serves  us,  in  order  that  we 
may  be  strengthened  and  prepared  to  work  for  Him  in 
the  world  without — our  proper  sphere  of  service.  The 
Scotch  expression,  "  diet  of  worship,"  is  a  much  happier 
one.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  even  Scotch  Presbyterians 
have  borne  sufficiently  in  mind  that  "  where  much  is 
given "  in  the  way  of  diet,  "  much  is  required  "  in  the 
way  of  exercise.  Think  how  many  unprofitable  specula- 
tions on  matters  too  high  for  us,  and  distracting  contro- 
versies consequent  thereon,  might  have  been  spared  if 
there  had  been  more  work  doing,  more  of  the  real  hard 
work  of  winning  souls  to  Christ.  How  much  of  mere 
ballooning  has  there  been  in  the  history  of  theological 
thought,  how  many  battles  fought  in  the  upper  air,  with  no 
other  result  to  the  weary  and  heavy-laden  multitudes  below 
than  the  dropping  on  their  heads  of  some  of  the  fragments 
from  the  fray  ?  If  only  the  Apostle's  practice  could  have 
been  kept  up,  of  closing  every  doctrinal  discussion  with 
a  "  Therefore,  my  beloved  brethren,"  a  new  trumpet-call 
to  be  "  always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord  "  !  It 
is  true  that  the  same  Apostle  was  once  caught  up 
to  "  the  third  heavens  ; "  but,  when  he  came  down  again 


2  24  ^^^    HELP   IN    CHUPtCH    WORK. 

to  common  earth,  lie  was  wise  enough  not  to  try  to  give  the 
world  the  benefit  of  his  discoveries.  He  simply  tells  us 
that  he  "  heard  words  unspeakable,  which  it  is  not  lawful 
for  a  man  to  utter," — a  most  wise  reticence,  and  much  to 
be  imitated.  He,  no  doubt,  could  have  said  much,  but 
he  probably  could  not  have  ended  with  "  Therefore,  my 
beloved  brethren."  He  was  too  much  in  earnest  in  saving 
men  to  think  it  worth  his  while  to  satisfy  the  curiosity 
of  speculative  minds.  And  if  even  such  "  visions  and 
revelations  of  the  Lord  "  as  the  Apostle  might  have  given 
were  out  of  place  when  so  much  work  was  to  be  done, 
what  is  to  be  said  of  the  endless  hair-splitting  which  has 
so  often  taken  the  place  of  heart- winning  in  the  energies 
of  Christian  people  ?  But  this  is  happily  an  age  of  work, 
and  we  have  probably  learnt  at  last  that  it  is  of  immea- 
surably less  consequence  to  discuss  Supralapsarian  and 
Sublapsarian  theories  than  to  restore  lapsed  Presbyterians 
and  bear  our  share  in  rescuing  lapsed  masses. 

Still  another  important  application  of  the  axioms  of 
our  subject  bears  on  the  relative  importance  of  Church 
order  and  Church  work.  It  is  said  that  "  order  is  Heaven's 
first  law."  But  Heaven's  order  is  the  order  in  which 
things  are  done.  It  is  not  capable  of  being  used,  like 
Parliamentary  order,  and  Church  order  too,  we  fear,  for 
hindering  anything  being  done.  In  a  certain  convenient 
and  oft-quoted  text  there  has  been  too  much  emphasis 
on  the  adverb  and  too  little  on  the  verb  :  "  Let  all  things 
be  done  decently  and  in  order."  Yes,  "  decently  and  in 
order,"  by  all  means,  that  is  the  adverb ;  but  do  not  for- 
get the  verb,  which,  as  every  Latin  scholar  knows,  is  the 
word  in  the  sentence  :  "  Let  all  things  be  done."  Some 
of  our  authorities  on  Church  order  are  sometimes  apt  to 
forget  that  there  are  many  things  which,  though  best 
done  in  order,  are  better  done  even  out  of  order  than  not 


LAY  HELP  IN  CHUECH  WORK.       225 

done  at  all.  I  Lad  a  letter  recently  from  a  friend  in 
reference  to  some  work  which  the  churches  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood had  been  slow  to  take  up,  because  it  took  them 
so  very  long  to  find  out  the  best  and  most  orderly  way 
of  doing  it.  He  writes  : — "  Our  Society  plunges  into  it, 
and  does  not  pause  to  work  it  up  to  principle,  or  to  state 
the  case."  Now,  it  is  good,  and  it  may  be  necessary,  to 
lay  down  principles  and  state  the  case  before  a  new  de- 
parture is  made,  and  a  pause  for  so  good  a  purpose  is  a 
good  thing.  But  church  pauses  are  apt  to  be  too  closely 
up  to  the  definition  of  the  old  -Travco,  from  which  the  word 
comes — "  I  cause  to  cease  " — they  are  apt  to  be  of  the 
kind  too  fitly  described  in  the  language  of  the  poet — 

"  An  awful  paitse,  prophetic  of  the  end." 

In  regard  to  new  departures,  especially  in  Presbyterian 
Church  Courts,  it  may  be  sometimes  expedient  to  press 
the  exhortation,  "  Stand  not  upon  the  order  of  your 
going,  but  go  at  once." 

To  sum  up  these  general  considerations,  it  is  evident 
that  in  order  to  approach  the  ideal  of  the  Church  the 
word  "  WORK  "  must  be  written  in  much  larger  letters  in 
our  assemblies,  synods,  presbyteries,  sessions,  congrega- 
tions, hearts,  and  lives.  There  is,  thank  God,  a  spirit  of 
work  abroad  among  Christian  people.  Already  it  has 
been  too  much  constrained  to  seek  channels  for  its  acti- 
vity outside  the  Church ;  it  is  high  time  we  were  giving 
it  fullest  scope  within.  And  if  "  work "  were  written 
larger,  "  money  "  might  be  written  smaller,  which  would 
be  a  great  blessing.  But  though  the  type  would  be 
smaller,  the  figures  would  be  larger ;  for  when  men 
first  give  themselves,  there  is  no  withholding  of  their 
means.  "Not  yours,  but  you,"  should  be  our  motto 
everywhere,  with  the  richest  as  well  as  with  the  poorest. 

P 


2  26  LAY    HELP    IN    CHURCH   WORK. 

There  is  plenty  of  money  in  the  great  Presbyterian 
Church ;  and  wherever  it  is  manifest  that  an  earnest 
work  is  going  on,  not  the  mere  erection  of  a  church 
building  or  providing  for  a  minister's  stipend  or  a  mis- 
sionary's salary,  but  the  gathering  in  of  souls,  the  mani- 
fest extension  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  there  money  will 
flow  in  quite  sufficient  abundance.  And  then,  apart 
from  the  money  power  of  the  Presbyterian  or  any  other 
Church,  we  have  the  old  promise,  given,  let  it  be 
remembered,  in  connection  with  the  very  difficulties  as 
to  self-support  which  so  often  paralyse  the  enterprise  of 
Christian  congregations,  "  God  is  able  to  make  all  grace 
abound  unto  you,  that  ye,  having  always  all  sufficiency 
in  everything,  may  abound  unto  every  good  work :  .  .  . 
and  He  that  supplieth  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  for 
food"  ("seed  to  the  sower"  first,  "bread  for  food" 
next)  "  shall  supply  and  multiply  your  seed  for  sowing, 
and  increase  the  fruits  of  your  righteousness "  (here, 
again,  the  "  seed  for  sowing "  comes  even  before  the 
"  fruits  of  righteousness  ")  ;  "  ye  being  enriched  in  every- 
thing unto  all  liberality." 

It  will  be  evident  from  the  foregoing  that  it  is  more 
than  help  that  is  expected  from  the  laity,  that  is,  from 
the  people.  Or,  if  we  keep  the  word,  it  is  help  in  the 
American,  and  not  the  English  sense.  In  America  a  maid- 
of-all-work  is  sometimes  called  a  "  help,"  to  save  her 
feelings,  but  she  has  the  work  to  do  nevertheless.  The 
mistress  does  the  directing.  So  in  a  Presbyterian  con- 
gregation there  ought  to  be  so  much  work  going  on 
that  minister  and  elders  have  all  they  can  do  in  origi- 
nating, inspiring,  directing  the  abundant  labours  of  the 
people,  and  setting  the  new-comers  to  work.  Properly 
speaking,  the  people  are  the  doers,  and  the  minister  and 
the  elders  the  helpers.      We  have  had  far  too  much  in 


LAY    HELP    m    CHURCH    WORK.  227 

the  past  of  what  may  be  called  the  General-without- 
Army  policy,  which  will  not  work  though  you  have 
generals  like  the  great  Napoleon  or  the  magnificent 
Gordon.  One  of  the  best  generals  I  know  in  mis- 
sion work  in  London  is  one  who  was  almost  given  up  as 
a  failure,  and,  what  is  worse,  almost  gave  himself  up  as 
a  failure,  because  he  set  to  work  at  first  with  no  army 
at  his  back.  Since  he  has  had  a  band  of  workers  round 
him  from  a  Christian  congregation,  the  only  limit  to  his 
success  has  been  the  straitness  of  his  barns  to  hold  his 
fruits  and  his  goods.  An  enlargement  made  a  year  ago 
leaves  him  to-day  as  hard  pressed  for  room  as  he  was 
before. 

If  the  officers  of  the  Church  were  set  more  free  from 
the  actual  doing  of  the  work,  to  keep  an  eye  over  the 
whole  field,  so  as  to  be  well  acquainted  with  its  different 
departments,  and  to  be  ready  to  find  the  right  place  for 
all  right  men  and  women  who  joined  the  establishment 
(I  use  the  word  in  its  business,  not  in  its  ecclesiastical 
sense,  the  idea  being  that  every  Christian  congregation 
is  as  definitely  an  establishment  for  winning  hearts  and 
lives  to  Christ  as  a  mercantile  establishment  is  for  doing 
its  particular  business) — if  the  officers  of  the  Church 
v/ere  thus  set  free  to  survey  the  whole  field  of  battle, 
might  there  not  be  a  much  better  disposition  of  the 
forces,  as  well  as  a  much  larger  force  to  make  disposition 
of?  Then  it  would  not  be  necessary,  as  it  would  not 
be  possible,  to  turn  the  whole  force  into  the  Sabbath- 
school,  offering  to  almost  everybody  the  same  work 
— a  very  poor  way  of  striving  after  the  ideal  of  the 
Christian  household  which  our  Lord  Himself  has  left 
us  :  authority  given  to  the  servants,  "  and  to  every  man 
his  work."  "  Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention  ;  " 
and  if  it  were  laid  upon  the  conscience  of  the  officers  of 


2  28  LAY    HELP    IN    CHURCH   WORK. 

tlie  Churcli  to  find  useful  and  suitable  employment  as 
soul-winners  for  every  member  of  the  Church,  our  Chris- 
tian wits  would  be  much  sharpened,  and  our  Christian 
activity  much  enlarged  and  diversified,  and  the  wants 
of  individual  cases  would  not  receive  so  little  special 
attention  as  they  do  now.  There  is  too  much  disposition 
to  restrict  Church  work  to  that  which  is  done  in  meetings 
and  classes,  to  the  neglect  of  that  individual  dealing 
which  is  likely  to  be  the  most  effective  of  all.  We  take 
the  promise,  "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together 
in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them,"  as  an 
encouragement  when  a  meeting  is  small  which  ought  to 
be  large  ;  but  is  there  any  reason  why  it  should  not  be 
applied  to  the  smallest  possible  meeting,  when  it  is  neither 
expected  nor  desired  to  have  more  present  than  the  two 
who  claim  the  first  share  in  the  promise  ?  The  minister 
is  supposed  to  endeavour  to  reach  his  people  individually  ; 
but  this  is  possible  only  to  a  most  limited  extent  when 
the  congregation  is  a  large  one.  The  Sabbath-school 
teacher  also  is  supposed  to  deal  with  individual  members 
of  his  class  as  well  as  with  the  class  as  a  whole.  But 
beyond  this,  there  is  little  done  in  the  way  of  individual 
dealing  under  the  auspices  of  the  Church.  Now,  why 
should  not  the  ministry  to  individuals  be  divided  among 
Christian  people  ?  Consider  how  much  more  a  minister 
has  accomplished  by  setting  others  to  this  work  than  by 
merely  doing  it  himself.  Suppose  he  has,  as  every  minis- 
ter ought  to  have,  a  number  of  inquirers,  who  are  anxious 
for  spiritual  guidance,  and  that  instead  of  taking  the  cases 
one  after  another  himself,  and  hurrying  through  them,  as 
he  must  needs  do,  he  distributes  them,  not  hastily,  but 
with  much  thought  and  care,  among  several  earnest  and 
prudent  members  of  his  flock,  laying  upon  them  the  respon- 
sibility of  dealing  with  them  in  detail,  and  only  keeping  the 


LAY   HELP    IN    CHTJECH    WORK.  229 

general  direction  and  guidance  in  liis  own  liands,  wliat  may 
be  expected  as  the  result  ?  First,  there  will  be  brought 
to  bear  far  more  force  of  thought  and  sympathy  and  prayer, 
as  well  as  of  personal  attention  and  effort ;  and  these,  be 
it  remembered,  are  the  great  forces  on  which  we  have  to 
rely.  The  minister  does  not  relinquish  his  own  responsi- 
bility, and  probably  gives  as  much  thought  and  prayer 
to  the  whole  number  as  if  he  had  kept  them  in  his  own 
hand.  And  then  each  one  of  those  who  work  under  his 
directions  gives  his  own  thought  and  prayer  to  it,  and 
will  probably  write  letters  and  watch  for  opportunities 
of  doing  good  which  would  be  impossible  for  the  minister 
under  the  pressure  of  other  claims.  Whatever  value 
there  is  in  official  authority  is  retained ;  for  those  who 
do  the  work  do  it,  not  in  their  own  name,  but  in  the 
name  of  the  minister  or  elder,  and  thus  are  free  from  the 
imputation  of  intrusion ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
work  is  secured  from  the  disadvantage  of  officialism ; 
for  it  cannot  be  set  down  to  the  mere  discharge  of  duty, 
but  must  be  accepted  as  evidence  of  real,  warm,  human 
interest.  It  avoids  the  Scylla  of  the  officious  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Charybdis  of  the  official  on  the  other. 
And  then,  to  crown  all,  not  only  is  the  work  done,  and 
done  in  the  best  way,  but  it  brings  rich  blessings  to 
those  through  whom  it  is  done,  giving  them  the  very 
exercise  they  need  for  their  spiritual  growth.  The  same 
principle  manifestly  applies  to  the  visitation  of  the  sick, 
and  to  all  cases  requiring  individual  attention. 

But  the  subject  widens  out,  so  that  the  limits  imposed 
demand  the  most  rigid  compression  ;  and,  therefore,  we 
shall  content  ourselves  with  giving  specimens  of  ques- 
tions that  would  come  up  for  consideration  and  decision 
in  all  our  congregations  if  only  it  were  distinctly  under- 
stood and  acknowledged  that  there  ousfht  to  be  work  found 


230  LAY   HELP   IN   CHUrvCH   WOEK. 

for  everybody  in  the  congregation  to  do.  Ought  not  the 
ministry  of  the  Word  to  be  as  varied  as  it  evidently 
was  in  apostolic  times,  so  that  not  only  ministers  and 
elders,  but  deacons  and  private  members,  should  all 
share  in  "  holding  forth  the  word  of  life  ? "  Should 
not  much  more  use  be  made  of  the  musical  talent  in 
our  congregations,  not  only  inside,  in  leading  the  praise, 
but  outside,  in  commending  the  Gospel  ?  And  in  out- 
side employment  of  our  musical  talent,  would  not 
"  teaching  and  admonishing  in  psalms  and  hymns  and 
spiritual  songs "  be  a  much  more  noble  and  dignified 
service  than  that  of  giving  concerts  to  raise  money  ?  In 
view  of  the  importance  of  winning  men  to  church  as  a 
means  of  winning  them  to  Christ,  is  it  really  the  best 
thing  to  leave  to  official  doorkeepers  and  pew-openers  the 
duty  and  privilege  of  acting  as  hosts  in  the  Lord's  House  ? 
Would  it  not  be  better  if  some  of  our  best  men  had  the 
pleasant  duty  assigned  them  of  giving  a  hearty  welcome 
to  those  who  come  as  strangers  to  dine  with  us  at  our 
diet  of  worship  on  the  Lord's  Day  or  to  lunch  with  us  in 
the  middle  of  the  week  ?  Ought  not  medical  mission  work 
to  be  a  distinct  branch  in  the  congregation,  superintended 
and  guided  by  the  medical  men  who  are  members  of  the 
congregation,  and  calling  out  in  the  most  sympathetic 
way  the  loving  helpfulness  of  those  who  are  willing  to 
watch  by  the  bed  of  the  sick  for  Jesus'  sake  ?  Ought  not 
training-classes  for  the  different  departments  of  Christian 
work  to  be  instituted  and  kept  up  ;  and  ought  not  teachers 
in  the  Sabbath-school,  and  visitors,  to  be  drawn  as  much 
as  possible  from  those  who  have  been  so  trained  ?  And 
ought  there  not  to  be  an  evangelistic  department  in  con- 
nection with  our  colleges  for  training  students  for  the 
ministry  ?  Ought  not  the  office  of  the  deacons,  and  the 
work  of  those  who  have  to  do  with  money  matters,  to  be 


LAY  HELP  IN  CHURCH  WORK.       23 1 

specially  guarded  from  the  secular  spirit,  as  in  the  days  of 
the  apostles,  not  only  by  insisting  on  high  spiritual  quali- 
fications on  the  part  of  all  who  are  selected  for  the  purpose, 
but  also  by  associating  with  it  some  such  share  in  the 
ministry  of  the  Word  as  the  primitive  deacons  manifestly 
had  ?  And  ought  not  the  office  of  the  deaconess  to  be 
revived,  without  any  further  separation  from  the  duties  of 
ordinary  life  than  in  the  case  of  the  elder,  but  with  the 
right  and  privilege  and  duty  of  attending  to  that  large 
portion  of  the  ordinary  district  visitation  which  neither 
minister  nor  elder  can  well  overtake  ? 

As  I  have  been  led  into  a  series  of  questions,  I  shall 
pat  in  the  same  form  all  that  I  have  left  myself  time  to 
say  on  that  part  of  the  subject  of  woman's  work  which 
gives  rise  to  the  keenest  discussion,  namely,  her  sphere  in 
the  ministry  of  the  Word.  Since  woman  has  an  acknow- 
ledged sphere  in  teaching  children  and  youth,  at  what  age 
must  the  scholars  have  arrived  when  it  shall  cease  to  be 
proper  that  she  should  continue  to  instruct  and  guide 
them  ?  And  since  she  has  an  acknowledged  liberty  to 
speak  about  Christ  and  His  love  in  the  presence  of  two, 
three,  four,  or  more,  so  long  as  the  company  is  a  small 
one,  at  what  particular  point  does  the  company  cease  to 
be  small  enough  ?  And  seeing  that  there  is  evidently 
some  little  difficulty  in  settling  definitely  these  simple 
questions,  the  further  question  is  suggested — What  other 
line  can  be  drawn  than  that  which  the  Providence  of  God 
without,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  within,  seem  to  indicate  in 
each  particular  case  ? 


XVII. 
THE  MISSIONAEY  OUTLOOK. 

[A  Sermon  preached  on  lehalf  of  tJie  Baptist  Missionary  Society, 
April  25,  1888.) 

"  The  Lord  hath  made  bare  His  holy  arm  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations  : 
and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  see  the  salvation  of  our  God." — 
IsA.  Hi.  10, 

TITHAT  a  marvel  are  these  missionary  chapters  of  Isaiah  ! 
' '  Almost  every  sentence  is  a  wonder.  To  us  it  is 
no  longer  so,  because  it  is  so  old  a  story  now,  and  so 
much  has  happened  since  it  was  first  told.  But  think  of 
words  like  these  being  spoken  then.  If  the  traditional 
date  is  correct,  it  was  the  time  when  Israel  had  just  been 
overthrown,  and  Judah  was  hastening  to  its  fall.  And 
yet  this  prophet  of  Judah  declares,  with  absolute  assurance, 
and  in  the  most  majestic  language,  that  the  God  of  Israel 
and  His  salvation  shall  be  known  to  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth  ;  and  time  has  proved  that  what  he  said 
was  true.  This  is  miracle  enough.  But  the  wonder  is 
greater  still  if  those  modern  critics  be  correct  who  bring 
down  the  date  of  these  chapters  to  the  days  of  the  exile ; 
for  in  that  case  the  voice  comes  to  us,  not  from  the  sun- 
set of  the  nation,  but  from  its  midnight ;  it  is  a  shout 
of  victory  out  of  Judah's  grave. 

What  utter  nonsense  these  glowing  periods  must  have 
seemed  to  the  politicians  of  the  day — to  all  the  people, 


THE   MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  233 

indeed,  except  those  of  "  like  precious  faith "  with  the 
prophet  himself !  Will  any  one  dare  to  speak  of  them  as 
nonsense  now  ?  Take  the  sentence  before  us  as  a  sample. 
It  consists  of  two  pai'ts,  holding  forth  prospects  both 
equally  out  of  sight  at  the  time,  the  one  as  purely 
visionary  as  the  other  when  the  words  were  spoken. 
More  than  twenty  centuries  have  rolled  away ;  the  first 
is  now  literal  fact,  the  second  is  plainly  drawing  nigh. 
The  Lord  God  of  Israel  "  hath  made  bare  His  holy  arm 
in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations  :  "  the  Bible  in  two  hundred 
and  fifty  languages  ;  the  heralds  of  the  Cross  in  every  part 
of  the  world ;  all  tongues  and  all  lands  open  to  Isaiah's 
gospel  of  salvation ;  converts  multiplying,  not,  indeed,  as 
we  could  wish,  but  enough,  at  least,  to  verify  the  prophet's 
words :  "  Lo,  these  shall  come  from  far :  and,  lo,  these 
from  the  north  and  from  the  west ;  and  these  from  the 
land  of  Sinim."  Most  unquestionably  "  the  Lord  hath 
made  bare  His  holy  arm  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations ;  " 
and  this  being  so,  it  ought  not  to  be  so  very  diSicult,  in 
looking!'  forward  to  the  future,  to  read  the  second  member 
of  the  sentence  with  as  unfaltering  tones  :  "  All  the  ends 
of  the  earth  shall  see  the  salvation  of  our  God." 

The  first  thought  suggested  to  our  minds  by  considera- 
tions like  these  is  the  exceeding  hopefulness  of  our  present 
position  as  compared  with  times  that  are  past.  We  have 
seen  how  dark  was  the  outlook  in  the  days  of  the  prophet 
Isaiah  ;  and  yet  even  he  felt  that  there  was  encourage- 
ment to  be  had  by  looking  back.  See  how  he  avails  him- 
self of  this  in  the  chapter  immediately  before  :  "  Look 
unto  Abraham  your  father  ;  ...  for  when  he  was  but  one 
I  called  him,  and  I  blessed  him,  and  made  him  many  " 
(Eev.  Ver.).  "  When  he  was  but  one ; "  and  to  this  one  man 
was  given  the  missionary  promise  in  its  largest  scope  : 
"  In  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 


2  34  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

And  this  one  man  believed  it,  too — believed  it  no  doubt 
as  firmly  as  our  most  successful  missionaries  do  to-day. 
Well  indeed  might  he  be  called  "  the  father  of  the 
faithful." 

Have  you  not  observed  that  it  has  been  in  the  days  of 
deepest  discouragement  that  the  great  missionary  promise 
has  rung  out  in  fullest  and  clearest  tones  ?  Recall,  for 
example,  that  time  in  the  history  of  God's  people  when 
tliey  had  reached  the  borders  of  their  promised  land,  and 
the  scouts  had  been  sent  forward  to  prepare  the  way  for 
an  advance  in  force.  Back  came  the  scouts  with  this 
report :  "  The  people  be  strong  that  dwell  in  the  land, 
and  the  cities  are  walled,  and  very  great :  and  moreover 
we  saw  the  children  of  Anak  there."  "And  all  the  con- 
gregation lifted  up  their  voice  and  cried,  and  the  people 
wept,"  and  clamoured  for  a  captain  to  lead  them  back  to 
Egypt.  What  an  army !  Oh  miserable  failure  !  After 
all  the  patriarchal  training,  after  all  the  discipline  in 
Egypt,  after  all  the  wonders  of  the  Exodus,  after  all  the 
inspiration  of  Sinai,  after  all  that  "  glorious  marching  " 
through  the  wilderness,  the  hosts  of  the  Lord,  instead  of 
going  forward  to  set  up  His  kingdom  in  the  appointed 
place,  are  about  to  beat  an  inglorious  retreat  back  to 
Egypt  and  slavery  again.  But  all  is  not  yet  lost.  There 
remain  still  on  the  Lord's  side  the  prayers  of  one  old 
man,  and  the  faith  and  courage  of  two  young  men ;  and 
in  answer  to  that  old  man's  prayer,  and  to  fortify  these 
young  men's  courage,  while  the  decree  is  passed  that  not 
one  of  all  this  faithless  multitude  shall  ever  set  foot  in 
the  land,  there  is  given  this  grand  assurance,  "  As  truly 
as  I  live,  all  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the 
Lord"  (Num.  xiv.  21). 

Recall  another  time  later  on.     The  land  has  been  won 
and  occupied  for  centuries,  but  the  nation  has  not  fulfilled 


THE   MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  235 

its  lofty  destiny ;  it  has  not  been  tlie  blessing  to  the 
world  it  was  meant  to  be ;  the  people  have  failed  of  their 
high  vocation  to  be  "  kings  and  priests  to  God  ; "  and 
now  the  days  of  tiie  nation  are  nearly  run,  and  a  prophet 
is  charged  with  the  heavy  burden  of  having  to  announce 
the  coming  of  the  Chaldeans  to  put  an  end  to  its  career. 
The  prophet  ventures  to  plead  with  the  Lord,  like  Moses 
of  old  ;  and  having  urged  his  plea,  he  says,  "  I  will  stand 
upon  my  watch,  and  set  me  upon  the  tower,  and  will  look 
forth  to  see  what  He  will  speak  with  me  .  .  .  concern- 
ing my  complaint."  So  he  betakes  himself  to  his  lonely 
watch-tower,  and  the  answer  comes — confirming,  indeed, 
the  sentence  of  judgment,  but  giving  the  assurance  at 
the  same  time  that  this  crowning  disaster  will  not  inter- 
fere with  the  fulfilment  of  the  great  missionary  promise, 
for  on  the  thick  thundercloud  of  judgment  there  is  spread 
once  again  the  bright  bow  of  promise  :  "  The  earth  shall  be 
filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  as 
the  waters  cover  the  sea  "  (Hab.  ii.  14). 

We  are  sometimes  discouraged  when  we  see  those 
missionary  diagrams,  with  their  little  spots  of  light  and 
their  great  masses  of  darkness.  What  sort  of  a  missionary 
diagram  should  we  have  to  draw  for  the  days  of  Abraham, 
or  of  Caleb,  or  of  Habakkuk  ?  A  pin-point  of  light  on 
a  page  of  darkness  would  be  too  much.  And  yet  it  was 
at  these  times  that  the  faith  of  God's  people  took  firmest 
hold  of  the  great  missionary  promise,  that  "  the  earth  " 
should  one  day  "  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  as 
the  waters  cover  the  sea."  Surely  this  is  a  rebuke  to 
little  faith  in  days  like  ours,  when,  however  far  we  may 
be  yet  from  the  grand  consummation,  it  is  at  least  plain 
that  "  the  Lord  hath  made  bare  His  holy  arm  in  the  eyes 
of  all  the  nations." 

We  might  refer  to  other  epochs  in  the  history  of  the 


236  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

missionary  enterprise.  We  might  speak,  with  reverence, 
of  "  the  Holy  One  of  Israel "  Himself,  who,  when  Israel 
as  a  nation  had  finally  failed  to  be  the  "  light  to  the 
Gentiles"  she  ought  to  have  been,  came  forward  Himself 
to  fulfil  the  ancient  covenant.  You  remember  that  when 
the  shadow  of  the  Cross  was  darkest,  and  to  all  earthly 
appearance  failure  seemed  about  to  be  stamped  upon  His 
mission  too,  a  few  Greeks  came  to  one  of  the  disciples 
with  the  request,  "  Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus."  To  Philip 
it  no  doubt  seemed  a  very  slight  occurrence  ;  not  so  to 
the  Master.  In  these  few  Greeks  He  recognises  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  Gentiles ;  and  the  shame  and  pain  of  the 
Cross  being  lost  in  the  thought  of  "  the  glory  that  shall 
follow,"  He  exclaims,  "  The  hour  is  come,  that  the  Son  of 
Man  should  be  glorified;"  and  after  struggling  with  the 
dark  forebodings  which  fill  His  human  soul  with  dismay 
at  the  thought  of  the  awful  darkness  immediately  before 
Him,  He  closes  with  this  note  of  triumph,  "  I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Myself." 

We  might  speak  of  the  last  of  the  apostles  in  lonely 
Patmos,  his  fellow-labourers  all  gone,  himself  silenced — 
sadly  aware  that  error  and  corruption  are  eating  out 
the  life  of  the  churches  he  and  his  fellow-apostles  have 
planted,  while  persecuting  Rome  seems  everywhere  trium- 
phant— not  a  gleam  of  light,  one  would  say,  in  all  the 
dark  horizon  ;  and  yet  out  of  that  darkness  comes  the 
great  Apocalypse, — a  vision  of  storm  indeed  ;  but  beyond 
all  storms  there  is  peace  and  final  victory ;  again  the 
great  missionary  promise  rings  out,  strong  and  clear  as 
ever :  "  The  seventh  angel  sounded  ;  and  there  followed 
great  voices  in  heaven,  and  they  said.  The  kingdom  of 
the  world  is  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord,  and  of  His 
Christ ;  and  He  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever." 

Even  since  the  canon  of  special  inspiration  closed,  there 


THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  237 

liave  never  been  wanting  men,  in  days  of  deepest  dis- 
couragement, to  hold  liigli  above  all  the  changes  of 
the  passing  time  the  hope  of  a  regenerated  world.  We 
might  speak  of  Augustine  of  Hippo,  in  those  days  so 
dark  and  dreadful  to  the  Christians  of  the  time,  when  the 
heathen  barbarians  were  pouring  in  on  all  sides,  and 
threatening  to  sweep  away  that  empire  of  Kome  on  which, 
since  the  days  of  Constantine,  had  been  fixed  the  hopes  of 
the  faithful  for  the  final  conquest  of  the  world  for  Christ. 
To  the  Christians  of  the  West  the  fortunes  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ  seem  absolutely  bound  up  with  the  fortunes 
of  Rome  ;  and  there  is  Alaric  the  Goth  thundering  at  its 
gates  ;  he  has  broken  in,  and  Rome  is  at  his  mercy ;  the 
churches  are  burning ;  the  worshippers  are  scattered ; 
their  blood  is  flowing  fast ;  again  the  hopeless  cry  goes 
up  to  Heaven,  "  0  God,  the  heathen  are  come  into  Thine 
inheritance.  .  .  .  The  dead  bodies  of  Thy  servants  have 
they  given  to  be  meat  unto  the  fowls  of  the  heaven.  .  .  . 
We  are  become  a  reproach  to  our  neighbours,  a  scorn 
and  derision  to  them  that  are  round  about  us."  Across 
the  sea,  in  little  Hippo,  the  great  Augustine  answers  the 
taunts  of  the  mockers  of  the  time  by  that  monumental 
work,  so  influential  from  that  day  to  this,  in  which  he 
summons  the  people  of  God  to  look  above  and  beyond  the 
falling  cities  of  men  to  the  great  City  of  God,  the  only 
eternal  city,  which  must  rise,  though  all  Babylons  and 
Romes  should  perish,  "  in  the  light  of  which  all  the 
nations  yet  shall  walk."  And  just  as  the  Master,  when 
the  Cross  was  near,  cried,  "  The  hour  is  come,  that  the 
Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified,"  so  did  the  disciple,  when 
Christian  Rome  was  tottering  to  its  fall,  rally  the  faith 
and  courage  of  a  well-nigh  despairing  age  with  the  old 
assurance,  "  Glorious  things  are  spoken  of  thee,  0  city  of 
God." 


238  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

Or  we  might  refer  to  Carey,  only  a  century  ago, 
when  the  Church  of  Christ  was  as  oblivious  of  her 
high  calling  as  ancient  Israel  ever  was — the  old  mis- 
sionary covenant  made  with  Abraham  treated  as  so  much 
waste  paper — the  idea  of  the  Church  of  God  "  awaking 
and  putting  on  her  strength,"  in  order  that  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth  should  see  the  salvation  of  God,  as  much 
despised  and  ridiculed  as  it  could  have  been  in  the  days 
of  Isaiah  himself — and  there  that  noble  hero  stood,  braving 
all  ridicule  and  scorn,  another  Caleb,  stemming  almost 
alone  the  tide  of  unbelief  and  cowardly  retreat ;  encour- 
aging the  people,  as  he  did,  with  the  words,  "  Let  us  go 
up  at  once  and  possess  the  land ;  for,  with  God  on  our 
side,  we  shall  be  well  able  to  do  it ;  "  another  Abraham, 
leaving  his  country  and  his  kindred,  and  going  out  to  a 
strange  land,  feeling  well  assured,  though  he  sees  not 
how,  that  the  Lord  will,  in  His  own  time  and  way,  fulfil 
His  ancient  covenant  that  in  His  Christ  all  nations  shall 
be  blessed,  and  the  whole  earth  "filled  with  the  knowledge 
of  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 
Are  we  not  ashamed  that  our  faith  should  waver  or  our 
courage  fail,  when  we  think  of  these  men  ?  These  men 
"  against  hope  believed  in  hope  ;  "  they  "  staggered  not 
at  the  promise  of  God  through  unbelief,"  but  were  "  strong 
in  faith,  giving  glory  to  God,  and  being  fully  persuaded 
that  what  He  had  promised  He  was  able  also  to  perform." 
And  shall  we  stagger  at  the  promise  of  God  through 
unbelief,  now  that  "  the  Lord  hath  made  bare  His  holy 
arm  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations,"  now  that  "  the  little 
one  has  become  a  thousand,  and  the  small  one  a  strong 
nation,"  now  that  we  have  a  thousand  times  as  much  to 
encourage  us  to  believe  in  the  future  of  the  Divine  King- 
dom as  had  Abraham,  or  Caleb,  or  Habakkuk,  or  John, 
or  Augustine,  or  Carey  ?      Let  us  be  done,  then,  with 


THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  239 

unbelief  and  cowardice,  and  let  our  faith  and  courage 
be  at  least  as  strong  in  days  wlien  the  world  is  open 
before  us,  and  light  is  spreading  fast,  and  the  morning 
star  of  hope  has  risen  on  the  darkness  of  heathenism, 
as  it  was  in  the  hearts  of  these  faithful  ones  when  hope 
seemed  dead  and  light  was  quenched  in  night. 

So  far  we  have  only  been  looking  at  one  side  of  the 
great  question.  It  is  indeed  true  that  never  before  has 
there  been  nearly  so  much  to  encourage  us  in  looking 
forward  to  the  future  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  it  is 
equally  true  that  never  have  the  discouragements  been 
so  prominent  and  conspicuous  as  they  are  to-day.  The 
combat  thickens  as  the  Church  of  Christ  advances.  The 
faithlessness  of  friends  and  the  fury  of  foes  may  be  no 
greater  in  the  thick  of  battle  than  when  the  opposing 
forces  eye  each  other  from  a  greater  distance ;  but  they 
are  more  alarming.  Unbelief  and  apathy  on  the  part  of 
Christian  people  were  so  far  excusable  a  century  ago ;  it 
needed  such  strong  faith  in  these  days  to  believe  in  God's 
ability  and  willingness  to  "  make  bare  His  holy  arm  in 
the  eyes  of  all  the  nations  "  that  it  was  little  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  so  many,  even  of  those  who  might  fairly 
be  called  good  Christian  people,  showed  themselves  quite 
incapable  of  it.  But  similar  apathy  and  unbelief  now  are 
much  more  discouraging,  just  because  they  are  so  utterly 
inexcusable  and  unaccountable.  We  have  our  heroes  of 
faith  and  devotion — men  who,  no  doubt,  could  stand 
alone  if  it  were  necessary,  like  Caleb,  or  like  Carey.  And 
besides  these,  we  have  tens  of  thousands  in  fullest  sym- 
pathy with  them.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  great 
majority  of  those  who  call  themselves  Christians  are  so 
faithless,  so  selfish,  so  apathetic,  so  indifferent  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  among  the  nations,  that  it 
would  seem  as  if  this  generation,  taken  as  a  whole,  were 


240  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

as  unfit  to  set  foot  in  the  promised  land  as  were  the  con- 
temporaries of  Caleb  and  of  Joshua.  And  when  we  look 
back  a  hundred  years,  to  the  time  when  all  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  could  raise  for  missions  in  a  year  was 
not  one-tenth  part  of  what  is  sometimes  given  by  single 
individuals  now  in  a  day,  instead  of  boasting  of  our  pro- 
gress, we  are  inclined  rather,  as  we  think  of  what  the 
Lord  has  wrought  since  then  to  encourage  our  faith  and 
call  out  our  devotion,  to  say  that  if  the  mighty  works 
which  have  been  done  in  sight  of  this  generation  had 
been  done  in  the  days  of  Sydney  Smith  and  the  other 
critics  of  the  "  consecrated  cobbler,"  they  would  have  re- 
pented long  ago  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  When  looked 
at  in  this  light,  the  apathy  of  the  majority  in  our  day  is 
as  deeply  discouraging  as  the  apathy  and  unbelief  of  all 
a  century  ago. 

And  then  there  is  the  enemy  sowing  tares,  with  far 
busier  hands  than  ever,  with  powers  at  his  disposal  such 
as  were  not  dreamed  of  a  century  ago.  As  before,  he 
has  the  world  at  his  back,  and  the  world  is  a  far  mightier 
force  than  it  ever  has  been.  As  long  as  he  can  have  sel- 
fishness for  his  prime  minister,  the  world  is  his,  and  its 
forces  are  on  his  side.  It  costs  money  to  send  mission- 
aries and  Bibles,  but  it  makes  money  to  send  drink  and 
sell  opium.  So  drink  is  sent  in  cargoes,  cargoes  of  death 
passing  continually  from  Christendom  to  heathendom,  over 
those  seas  of  which  our  country  boasts  herself  the  mistress  ; 
and  the  trade  in  opium  is  sacred,  because,  though  it  is 
ravaging  with  ruin  the  most  populous  country  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  it  pays.  What  hope  for  the  world's  redemption 
can  there  be,  so  long  as  selfishness  can  deal  out  death  with 
far  more  lavish  hand  than  love  can  scatter  words  of  life  ? 

Another  discouragement  is,  that  after  all  the  progress 
which  has  been  made,  the  field  is  larger  and  the  work 


THE   MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  24 1 

vaster  than  ever  before.  It  is  true  that  on  our  side  "  the 
little  one  has  become  a  thousand  ;  "  but  then,  on  the 
other  side,  the  millions  have  increased.  It  is  true  that 
the  proportionate  increase  of  Christian  converts  in  heathen 
lands  is  most  encouraging,  much  greater  than  even  of 
Mohammedans,  of  whose  multiplication  we  have  lately 
heard  so  much.  But  then  in  these  Eastern  lands  the 
figures  on  our  side  are  so  very  small,  and  on  the  other 
so  enormously  large,  that  though  our  rate  of  increase  is 
much  higher,  yet  the  numerical  increase  on  the  side  of 
Mohammedanism  and  heathenism  is  much  greater  than 
ours  can  be.  So,  though  we  are  certainly  gaining  in  a 
mathematical  sense,  we  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  gaining 
practically ;  for  it  is  at  so  slow  a  pace  that  there  seems  no 
reasonable  prospect,  at  the  present  rate,  of  even  getting 
within  sight  of  our  goal. 

From  all  this  it  follows  that  while,  if  we  simply  look 
at  the  progress  which  has  been  made  in  the  last  hundred 
years,  from  the  days  of  Carey  until  now,  we  might  con- 
clude that  we  were  already  within  measurable  distance  of 
our  glorious  goal ;  yet,  when  we  look  at  the  other  side,  and 
think  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work  still  to  be  done,  the 
terrible  might  of  the  forces  arrayed  against  us,  and  the  sad 
lack  of  faith  and  hope,  and  love  and  devotion,  on  the  part 
of  very  many  whom  we  reckon  on  our  side,  it  becomes  evi- 
dent that,  though  victory  is  certain,  it  is  certain  simply  be- 
cause "  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it ;  "  and  before 
it  can  be  reached  there  must  be  a  change,  a  mighty  change  ; 
the  Church  of  Christ  must  "awake  and  put  on  her  strength" 
as  she  has  never  yet  done.  While  we  have  a  thousand 
times  as  much  to  encourage  us  as  there  was  at  any  of 
those  past  times  of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  we  have 
as  much  need  as  ever  for  faith  in  God,  and  for  that  devo- 
tion without  which  "  faith  is  dead,  being  alone." 

Q 


2|2  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

It  is  true  that  tlae  work  is  God's,  and  He  alone  can  do 
it ;  but  it  has  been  His  purpose  from  the  beginning  that 
it  shall  be  done  through  human  agency.  When  Israel 
refuses  to  go  up  against  the  children  of  Anak,  the  Lord's 
purpose  is  not  frustrated,  but  its  execution  is  delayed.  It 
would  have  been  easy  for  God  to  drive  out  the  Canaanite, 
and  leave  the  land  open  for  His  people  to  enter  without 
opposition ;  but  it  is  His  will  that  Israel  shall  do  the 
work,  and  so  nothing  is  done  till  Israel  is  ready.  So 
was  it,  again,  when  Israel  finally  failed  of  her  high 
vocation.  The  purpose  of  God,  that  in  the  seed  of 
Abraham  all  nations  should  be  blessed,  could  never  fail ; 
but  the  chosen  nation  lost  the  privilege  of  being  the  arm 
of  the  Lord  to  carry  it  out.  The  Holy  One  of  Israel  was 
compelled  in  sorrow  to  pronounce  the  sentence :  "  The 
kingdom  of  God  shall  be  taken  from  you,  and  given  to 
a  nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof."  Now  it  is 
our  time.  Even  if  we  were  as  foolish  and  selfish  as 
Israel  of  old,  the  purpose  of  God,  that  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth  should  see  His  salvation,  would  not  fail ;  but  then 
it  would  fail  of  accomplisbment  by  us.  By  other  instru- 
ments the  great  work  would  be  done.  God  could  do  it 
by  miracle,  of  course.  As  at  the  first  He  said,  "  Let 
there  be  light,  and  there  was  light,"  so  over  the  darkness 
of  heathenism  the  same  fiat  might  go  forth  to-day,  and 
in  a  moment  the  earth  would  be  tilled  with  the  glory  of 
the  Lord.  But  that  would  not  be  the  accomplishment  of 
the  Divine  will.  That  would  not  be  the  salvation  of  the 
world  :  it  would  be  the  annihilation  of  the  world  that  now 
is,  and  the  creation  of  another.  It  is  the  purpose  of  God 
that  His  people  shall  carry  the  light,  that  His  Church 
shall  stretch  forth  her  hand  to  save  the  world.  "  The 
Lord  shall  make  bare  His  arm."  What  is  the  arm  of  the 
Lord  ?      Is  not  the  Church  His  body  ;   and  if  the  Church 


THE   MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  243 

is  suflfering  from  atrophy  of  tlie  heart  or  palsy  of  the  arm, 
how  can  the  work  be  done  ?  The  okl  watchword  is  as 
true  as  ever,  "  Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  My 
Spirit,  saith  the  Lord."  But  the  Spirit  must  animate 
the  body,  the  vital  current  of  force  must  flow  from  Him, 
"  who  is  the  head  of  the  body,  the  Church,"  into  the 
heart,  and  out  to  the  arm,  which  then,  and  not  till  then, 
will  be  "  the  arm  of  the  Lord,"  and,  therefore,  mighty  to 
carry  His  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

First  of  all,  then,  the  heart  must  be  right.  There 
must  be  more  life  and  wai'mth  and  power  at  home.  This 
has  always  been  the  first  necessity.  Caleb  recognised 
this  when  he  said,  "  If  the  Lord  delight  in  us,  then  He 
will  bring  us  into  this  land."  In  the  same  way,  when 
Habakkuk  received  the  answer  to  his  "  complaint,"  he  at 
once  poured  out  his  heart  in  the  prayer,  "  0  Lord,  revive 
Thy  work  in  the  midst  of  the  years."  The  Apocalypse 
begins  with  an  earnest  appeal  to  the  seven  churches  to 
come  back  to  their  first  love.  And  the  old  missionary 
psalm,  which  mingles  prayer  and  prophecy  in  such  a 
wondrous  way,  enshrines  the  same  thought :  "  God  be 
merciful  to  us  and  bless  us,  and  cause  Thy  face  to  shine 
upon  us,  that  Thy  way  may  be  known  upon  earth,  Thy 
saving  health  among  all  nations."  Nor  can  we  forget 
how  our  Blessed  Lord  Himself  connects  in  the  closest  way 
His  own  personal  devotion,  His  being  "  obedient  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  Cross,"  with  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  His  cause.  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the 
earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  "  This  He  said, 
signifying  by  what  manner  of  death  He  should  die."  In 
every  way  is  borne  in  upon  us  the  great  law  of  the  king- 
dom, that  if  we  would  have  more  power  in  the  arm,  we 
must  have  more  love  in  the  heart ;  if  we  would  win  those 
that  are  without,  we  must  have  more  of  the  spirit  of  self- 


2  44  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

sacrificing  devotion  within.  "  Ye  shall  receive  power, 
after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you."  The  first 
and  great  thing,  then,  is  more  life  and  love  and  power 
at  home. 

Does  this  mean  the  slackening  of  effort  abroad  ?  That 
would  be  the  last  thing  that  would  help  the  cause  at 
home.  Some  people  foolishly  imagine  that  the  fewer  men 
and  less  money  we  send  to  foreign  lands  the  more  we  can 
accomplish  at  our  own  doors.  Experience  proves  that  it 
is  rather  the  exact  contrary.  It  is  not  men,  it  is  not 
money,  we  lack  at  home.  There  is  abundance  of  both. 
What  is  wanted  is  an  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
to  consecrate  the  men,  to  consecrate  the  money  we  have. 
If  only  the  Church  would  awake  and  put  on  her  strength, 
she  might  quadruple  her  foreign  force  and  her  foreign 
contributions,  and  at  the  same  time  increase  tenfold  her 
power  at  home.  Is  not  one  man  endued  with  power  from 
on  high  far  more  influential  than  a  thousand  common- 
place Christians  content  with  the  saving  of  their  own 
little  souls  ?  Suppose  we  could  halve  the  number  of 
Christian  workers  at  home  by  sending  the  other  half 
away  to  far  more  needy  fields  abroad,  and  at  the  same 
time  double  the  faith  and  love  of  all,  does  any  one  imagine 
that  the  work  at  home  would  suffer  any  loss  ?  It  would 
be  an  incalculable  gain  ;  for  the  doubled  zeal  of  those  that 
remained  would  not  only  accomplish  more,  but  it  would 
enkindle  others,  and,  before  many  months  were  gone,  the 
army  of  workers  at  home  would  be  more  numerous  than 
ever.  Devotion  is  like  steam ;  it  must  be  concentrated, 
or  it  cannot  accomplish  anything.  Suppose  the  faith  of 
Paul  had  been  divided  among  a  hundred  men,  would  the 
whole  hundred  have  accomplished  as  much  as  the  one  ? 
Distribute  the  steam  of  one  engine  among  a  hundred,  and 
see  how  much  driving-power  you  can  get.      If  we  could 


THE    MISSIOXARY    OUTLOOK.  245 

reduce  the  Cliurcli  of  Christ  in  the  world  to-day  to  one- 
huudredth  its  present  size,  and  let  that  part  have  as  much 
faith  and  devotion  as  there  is  in  the  whole  of  it  now, 
it  would  be  like  Gideon's  three  hundred,  a  power  that 
nothing  could  resist.  We  need  not  be  afraid,  then,  of 
diminishing  our  outward  bulk,  so  long  as  that  diminution 
is  the  result  of  increased  energy  in  our  proper  work. 
Thouofh  exercise  diminishes  bulk,  it  increases  strength 
and  promotes  health.  Let  us  by  all  means,  then,  have, 
not  less,  but  more  exercise,  especially  at  the  extremities, 
where  there  is  most  need  and  greatest  scope  for  it ;  but 
as  to  the  vitals,  what  is  above  all  necessary  is  purer  blood. 
AVhat  is  wanted  is  far  more  devotion,  more  of  the  Spirit 
of  the  Master,  more  of  the  blood  of  the  Cross  in  the  veins 
of  the  Chui'ch. 

Almost  every  one  has  heard  of  the  beautiful  device, 
adopted  by  some  American  missionaries,  of  an  ox  standing 
between  an  altar  and  a  plough,  and,  engraved  beneath 
it,  the  motto,  "  Ready  for  either  " — to  do  or  to  die  for 
Jesus'  sake.  That  spirit  is  wanted  all  through  the  Church ; 
and  it  is  a  great  thing  that,  even  in  these  self-indulgent 
times,  we  have  so  many  stirring  examples  of  it  in  the 
foreign  field,  and  notably  in  Africa,  of  which  no  better 
illustration  could  be  given  than  the  history  of  the  Congo 
Mission.  The  heroism  of  General  Gordon  is  known  to  all 
the  world,  because  his  name  was  connected  with  great 
national  enterprises,  and  for  this  reason  it  has  been  of 
priceless  value ;  but  the  records  of  purely  missionary  en- 
terprise in  the  Dark  Continent  can  show  many  Gordons 
— men  by  the  score  as  brave,  as  devoted,  as  self-sacri- 
ficing to  the  uttermost ;  whose  heroisin  would  stir  men's 
blood  all  over  Christendom,  if  only  the  history  of  missions 
received  half  the  attention  it  deserves  ;  and  no  mission 
has  been  more  highly  honoured  in  this  respect,  perhaps 


246  THE    MISSION AEY    OUTLOOK. 

none  has  furnished  a  larger  contingent  to  "  the  noLle 
army  of  the  martyrs,"  than  the  Congo  Mission  of  the 
Baptist  Missionary  Society. 

Were  such  faith  and  devotion  to  become  general,  all 
men  vrould  see  and  recognise  the  unity  of  Christians. 
Who  thinks  of  Hannington  as  an  Episcopalian,  or  Com- 
ber as  a  Baptist  ?  We  only  think  of  them  as  servants 
of  Christ,  and  missionaries  of  His  glorious  Gospel.  So 
ought  it  to  be  everywhere  ;  and  when  it  is  so,  the  Church 
mstj  lift  up  her  head,  for  the  day  of  the  world's  redemp- 
tion will  then  be  drawing  nigh.  We  learn  from  our 
Lord's  intercessory  prayer  that,  as  soon  as  the  Church  is 
seen  to  be  one  in  Him,  the  world  will  believe  ;  and  our 
prophet  gives  a  hint  of  it,  too,  for  he  has  just  been  say- 
ing (verse  8),  "  Thy  watchmen  shall  lift  uj)  the  voice  ; 
with  the  voice  together  shall  they  sing ;  for  they  shall  see 
eye  to  eye^  when  the  Lord  shall  bring  again  Zion."  And 
throughout  all  these  missionary  chapters  the  summons  is 
addressed,  not  to  individual  believers,  but  to  the  Church 
as  a  whole.  But  the  unity  the  prophet  has  in  view  does 
not  preclude  diversity  ;  it  is  the  unity  of  an  army,  which 
may  be  made  up  of  different  regiments  and  of  various 
services,  all  united,  however,  under  one  banner.  What 
this  banner  is  he  makes  very  plain.  It  is  what  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth  are  yet  to  see,  the  salvation  of  our  God. 

"  The  salvation  of  our  God " — this  is  the  keynote 
all  through  the  great  missionary  epic.  Not  ritual,  not 
philosophy,  not  theology,  but  salvation  is  the  word.  And 
the  nature  of  the  salvation  is  set  forth  with  wonderful 
distinctness.  Centuries  must  yet  elapse  before  the  Christ 
of  God  can  come ;  but  already  the  prophet  of  the  Lord 
sees  Him  afar.  "  Behold,  my  servant ! "  he  cries,  and 
then  describes  the  suffering  Saviour,  in  that  wonderful 
fifty-third  chapter,  as  if  the  Gosj)el  story  had  been  already 


THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  247 

told.  Later  on  lie  sees  the  Saviour-King  at  tlie  head  of 
His  forces :  "  Behold,  I  have  given  Him  for  a  Witness 
to  the  peoples,  a  Leader  and  Commander  to  the  peoples  " 
(Iv.  4). 

The  salvation  of  our  God  through  a  crucified  and 
exalted  Christ,  this  was  the  banner  of  "  the  Evangelical 
Prophet ;  "  and  surely  it  should  suffice  for  us,  as  it  sufficed 
for  the  great  Apostle  who  wrote  :  "  I  determined  to  know 
nothing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified." 
Here,  then,  is  our  rallying-point.  It  need  not  mar  our 
unity  that  we  differ  on  those  matters  of  the  circumfer- 
ence of  truth  in  which  true  Christians  of  all  ages  have 
differed,  so  long  as  we  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus,  glorying 
in  His  Cross,  accepting  for  ourselves  and  proclaiming  to 
the  world  the  salvation  of  our  God.  Why,  then,  should 
not  the  people  of  Christ,  of  every  name,  on  whose  banner 
is  inscribed,  "  The  Salvation  of  our  God,"  advance  together 
now  as  a  mighty  army,  responding  to  the  summons — 

*'  Onward,  Christian  soldiers, 
Marching  as  to  war  ; 
Witli  the  Cross  of  Jesus 
Going  on  before  "  ? 

Then  should  we  march  to  victory.  It  was  a  true 
instinct  that  led  Constantino  to  put  the  cross  on  his 
banner,  and  set  round  it  the  device,  "  In  hoc  signo  viiices." 
Had  not  the  Lord  Himself  said,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me"?  See,  too,  how 
our  prophet,  immediately  on  concluding  his  great  pro- 
phecy of  Christ  crucified,  breaks  forth  in  these  inspiring 
strains  :  "  Sing,  0  barren,  thou  that  didst  not  bear  ;  break 
forth  into  singing,  and  cry  aloud,  thou  that  didst  not 
travail  with  child  :  for  more  are  the  children  of  the  deso- 
late than  the  children  of  the  married  wife,  saith  the  Lord. 


248  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

Enlarge  tlie  place  of  tby  tent,  and  let  them  stretcli  forth 
the  curtains  of  thine  habitations  :  spare  not,  lengthen  thy 
cords,  and  strengthen  thy  stakes ;  for  thou  shalt  break 
forth,  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left ;  and  thy  seed 
shall  inherit  the  Gentiles,  and  make  the  desolate  cities  to 
be  inhabited.  Fear  not ;  for  thou  shalt  not  be  ashamed : 
neither  be  thou  confounded ;  for  thou  shalt  not  be  put  to 
shame :  for  thou  shalt  forget  the  shame  of  thy  youth, 
and  shalt  not  remember  the  reproach  of  thy  widowhood 
any  more.  For  thy  Maker  is  thine  husband :  The  Lord 
of  Hosts  is  His  name  ;  and  thy  Redeemer  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel ;  The  God  of  the  whole  earth  shall  He  be  called." 
We  can  readily  see  how  all  this  would  come  about,  if  only 
Christian  people  of  every  name  made  it  evident — as  evi- 
dent as  those  African  missionaries  have  made  it — that 
they  were  followers  of  the  crucified  Saviour.  If  the  Chris- 
tians of  every  denomination  were  only  thoroughly  con- 
secrated— living  in  the  world  as  Christ  was  in  the  world, 
loving  one  another  as  He  loved  us — entitled,  every  one, 
to  say,  "  To  me  to  live  is  Christ" — would  the  world  ever 
think  of  raising  the  question  whether  we  agreed  as  to 
methods  of  government  or  form  of  worship  ?  or  even 
whether  we  were  all  at  one  as  to  the  philosophy  of 
that  salvation  by  the  atoning  death  of  Christ,  on  which 
we  rest  as  the  only  sure  foundation  for  the  hopes  of  lost 
sinners  of  mankind  ?  No ;  they  would  see  Christ  in  all, 
and  that  would  be  enough  to  make  it  plain  that  all  were 
one  in  Him.  Against  such  united  testimony  unbelief 
could  not  hold  out  for  a  single  generation.  Then  would 
the  Church  grow  as  she  did  in  the  glow  of  her  first  love 
and  devotion  ;  the  nation  would  speedily  become  Chris- 
tian, not  in  name,  but  in  very  deed  ;  our  commerce  would 
be  converted  ;  our  ships  would  no  longer  carry  drink  and 
death,   but  life    and    light  everywhere.      Then   the  work 


THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK.  249 

would  not  be  too  great  for  us.  We  could  do  it  very 
speedily.  Even  if  we  stood  alone,  we  could  do  it ;  and  of 
course  we  should  not  stand  alone.  Closely  linked  as  are 
now  all  the  nations  of  the  civilised  world,  there  could  not 
be  such  a  revival  in  Britain  without  similar  movements 
in  the  United  States  and  throughout  all  Christendom. 
But  even  if  we  stood  alone,  the  one  Christian  nation  on 
the  face  of  the  earth — but  Christian  to  the  very  core — 
Christian  through  and  through — Christ  lifted  up  every- 
where, His  Gospel  everywhere  believed,  His  will  every- 
where done — the  nation,  as  a  nation,  seeking  first  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness — we  could  bring 
the  heathen  world  to  the  feet  of  Christ  in  a  very  short 
time.  The  whole  world  is  open  to  us  in  such  a  way 
that,  with  our  great  resources  consecrated,  as  they  would 
in  that  case  be,  to  the  cause  of  Christ — delivered  from 
apathy  at  home  aud  antagonism  abroad — our  politics,  our 
trade  and  commerce,  our  literature,  all  the  forces  of  the 
nation,  on  our  side — we  should  soon  see  the  most  glow- 
ing prophecies  of  these  missionary  chapters  fully  realised. 
Even  the  sixtieth  chapter  would  cease  to  be  prophecy  and 
become  plain  history — the  history  of  our  own  times. 

But,  alas  !  to  talk  in  this  way  seems  almost  as  Utopian 
as  it  must  have  seemed  in  the  days  of  the  prophet.  We 
are  so  far  from  it,  so  sadly  far  from  it.  It  is  true  that, 
if  the  Church  were  thoroughly  roused,  she  could  gain  the 
nation ;  and  if  the  nation  were  saved  and  sanctified,  she 
could  gain  the  world ;  but  who  or  what  will  rouse  the 
Church,  who  or  what  will  unite  all  her  forces,  and  so 
prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord  ?  Will  not  you  rouse  us 
all  a  second  time  ?  You  did  it  a  century  ago.  From 
3'ou  sounded  out  the  Word  of  the  Lord  to  a  slumbering 
Church,  to  awake  and  put  on  her  strength.  Now  that  a 
century  has  gone,  can  you  not  give  us  all  another  impulse 


250  THE    MISSIONARY    OUTLOOK. 

that  will  make  tlie  coming  years  as  much  greater  and 
more  fruitful  than  the  present,  as  these  are  better  than 
the  old  days,  when  the  claims  of  the  heathen  were  utterly 
neglected  and  forgotten  ? 

We  can  all  at  least  fall  back  on  faithful  Habakkuk's 
prayer ;  and  we  can  look  to  ourselves  and  see  to  it  that 
we,  as  individuals,  are  thoroughly  devoted  to  our  Master's 
service,  and  never  cease  from  our  endeavours  to  maintain 
and  promote  the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  on  which  so  much 
depends ;  that  we  do  what  we  can,  and  give  what  we 
can,  for  the  sending  of  the  Gospel  of  salvation  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth ;  and  then,  even  though  this  generation 
too  should  pass  away  before  the  great  promise  is  fulfilled, 
ours  will  be  the  honour  of  Caleb  and  of  Carey,  of  having 
done  what  we  could ;  and  it  will  not  be  our  fault  that, 
though,  at  the  time  we  lived  upon  the  earth,  the  Lord 
did  make  bare  His  arm  in  the  sight  of  all  the  nations, 
there  had  to  be  a  further  postponement  of  the  day  when 
all  the  ends  of  the  earth  should  see  the  salvation  of  our 
God. 


XVIII. 

THE  GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO  CHRIST. 

T^HE  differences  which  distinguish  from  each  other  the'lof 
various  branches  into  which  the  Church  of  Christ  in  '' 
the  world,  in  its  true  Scriptural  sense,  is  divided,  are  not 
of  the  essentials  of  the  faith,  and  therefore  do  not  affect 
its  real  unity  and  catholicity  any  more  than  the  branching 
off  of  a  tree  interferes  with  its  oneness  as  an  organism. 
It  is  the  sharing  of  the  life  of  the  tree,  and  not  inclusion 
within  the  trunk,  or  even  similarity  of  form  and  structure 
to  other  parts  of  the  tree,  which  marks  the  vital  con- 
nection of  the  branch  with  the  root ;  and  experience  has 
proved  that  none  of  the  truly  evangelical  denominations, 
as  they  are  called,  is  excluded  from  the  life  which  flows 
from  Christ  to  all  who  are  united  to  Him  by  a  living 
faith.  It  has  been  made  abundantly  evident  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  that  the  Spirit  of  God  will  visit 
His  people  and  dwell  in  their  hearts,  and  make  manifest 
the  power  of  His  grace  among  them,  whatever  mode  of 
church  government  they  may  have  thought  it  best  to 
adopt.  His  presence  and  power  are  not  made  to  de- 
pend on  the  monarchical  and  oligarchical  institutions  of 
Episcopacy,  or  on  the  republicanism  of  Presbyterians, 
or  on  the  democracy  of  Congregationalists,  but  on  a 
state  of  mind  and  heart  which  is  to  be  found  among 
them  all  quite  irrespectively  of  these  differences.  It  is 
no  less  certain  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  neither  secured 


252  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

ou  tlie  one  hand,  nor  grieved  away  on  the  other,  by  any 
mode  of  administering  the  rite  of  baptism,  or  by  any 
conviction  tliat  may  be  hekl  as  to  the  reLition  of  infant 
children  to  that  ordinance.  Even  the  doctrinal  differ- 
ences which,  in  our  time  at  least,  distinguish  Calvinists 
from  Arminians,  turn  much  more  on  deep  questions  of 
metaphysics  than  on  the  fundamentals  of  the  faith.  The 
modern  Calvinist  does  not  deny  the  freedom  of  the  human 
will,  nor  does  the  modern  Arminian  deny  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Divine  will ;  each  may  lay  stress  on  certain  doc- 
trines which,  when  looked  at  alone,  seem  to  involve 
the  denial  of  the  one  or  the  other,  and  may  do  it  in 
such  a  way  as  to  betray  a  deficiency  in  the  logical  power 
which  would  lead  an  acuter  mind  to  perceive  the  neces- 
sary consequence  ;  but  the  Spirit  of  God  can  neither  be 
won  by  good  reasoning  nor  lost  by  bad  logic ;  it  is  the 
trustful  mind,  the  loving  heart,  the  obedient  will,  which 
He  demands  ;  and  wherever  these  are  found,  whether  or 
not  there  be  the  power  to  argue  wisely  "  of  fix'd  fate, 
freewill,  foreknowledge  absolute,"  there  will  be  revealed 
the  glory  of  His  presence  and  the  power  of  His  grace. 

It  is  otherwise,  however,  with  certain  far  more  serious 
differences  which  cross  the  lines  of  the  different  denomi- 
nations ;  we  refer  especially  to  the  Ritualism,  which  on 
the  right  runs  out  into  superstition,  and  the  Rationalism, 
which  on  the  left  passes  into  sheer  infidelity. 

These  were  the  two  great  dangers  of  the  apostolic 
times ;  and  they  are  no  less  to  be  dreaded  in  our  time. 
It  was  against  tliese,  and  not  against  any  of  the  posi- 
tions which  have  been  taken  up  by  those  who  are  com- 
monly called  Evangelical  Christians  in  our  day,  that  the 
apostolic  warnings  and  anathemas  were  directed.  Wise 
cautions  were  given  against  errors  even  in  minor  matters  ; 
but  these  were  denounced  most  unsparingly,  because  they 


THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  253 

were  regarded  as  entirely  subversive  of  the  Gospel ;  and 
sad  experience  lias  only  too  plainly  proved  that  the 
apostles  were  altogether  right. 

It  is  true  that  the  substance  of  the  Gospel  may  be 
held  in  combination  with  many  of  the  superstitions  of 
llitualism  ;  and  where  this  has  been  the  case,  God,  in  His 
abounding  mercy,  has  not  withheld  His  Spirit  from  those 
who  have  accepted  His  Sou,  even  though  in  ignorance 
they  have  adopted  views  or  followed  practices  which  His 
Word  discourages  or  condemns.  So  long  as  they  have 
held  faith  and  a  good  conscience — genuine  faith  in  Christ, 
together  with  an  honest  following  of  Him  according  to 
the  light  that  was  in  them — God  has  accepted  them,  and 
blessed  them,  and  even  in  a  marvellous  way,  considering 
their  grievous  errors,  owned  and  honoured  their  efforts 
for  His  cause.  This,  too,  is  abundantly  evident  to  all 
candid  students  of  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church. 
But  none  the  less  is  it  true  that  Eitualism,  as  such,  is  in 
direct  antagonism  to  the  Gospel.  Those  who  have  held 
the  two  together  have  done  so  by  a  happy  inconsistency 
which  has  saved  them  from  what  would  otherwise  have 
been  the  fatal  consequences  of  an  essentially  anti-evangelical 
belief.  That  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  speak  of  ritualistic 
error  in  these  terms  is  sufficiently  evident  from  the  solemn 
warning  which  the  Apostle  Paul  addressed  to  the  Gala- 
tian  Church  against  this  same  heresy  of  Ritualism  into 
which  some  of  them  had  fallen  :  "  I  marvel  that  ye  are 
so  soon  removed  from  Him  that  called  you  into  the  grace 
of  Christ,  unto  another  gospel,  which  is  not  another."  The 
Ritualism  of  our  day,  however,  scarcely  ventures  to  call 
itself  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;  rather  does  it  claim  to  be 
something  superadded  to  it  on  the  authority  of  the 
Church.  The  Ritualist  of  our  day,  accordingly,  is  to  be 
met,  not  by  a  discussion  of  what  the  Gospel  is,  but  rather 


2  54  THE    GOSPEL   ACCOEDING    TO    CHRIST. 

by  enlightenment  as  to  the  Scriptural  idea  of  the  Church, 
and  the  nature  and  limits  of  its  authority. 

The  Rationalism  *  to  which  we  refer,  on  the  other  hand, 
not  only  claims  to  represent  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  but  to 
set  it  forth  in  its  original  simplicity  and  purity,  free  from 
those  accretions  which  encumbered  and  disfigured  it,  after 
it  had  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  Founder  of  Chris- 
tianity into  those  of  His  disciples.  Its  representatives 
make  no  attempt  to  harmonise  their  presentation  of  the 
Gospel  with  that  of  St.  Paul  or  St.  John  ;  rather  do  they 
appeal  from  them  to  the  higher  authority  of  their  Master, 
and  profess  to  give  to  the  world  the  original  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Himself.  On  the  strength  of  this  appeal  they  deny 
all  that  is  distinctive  in  the  Gospel,  as  the  announcement 
of  a  divine  interposition  for  man's  salvation,  and  reduce 
it  to  the  mei'e  setting  forth  of  duties  which  we  are  coun- 
selled or  enjoined  to  perform,  and  commendation  of  dis- 
positions, which  we  are  exhorted  to  cultivate.  Thus  Chris- 
tianity is  merged  in  moral  culture  ;  and  in  place  of  the  old 
Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God,  there  is  offered  a  new  gospel 
of  the  goodness  of  man,  founded  on  those  moral  precepts 
which  are  more  or  less  common  to  all  religions. 

The  position    thus  taken  is  still  more  fatally  antago- 

*  It  may  be  well  that  something  should  be  said  here  as  to  the  sense 
in  which  this  term  is  employed,  inasmuch  as  there  is  exceeding  vagueness 
in  its  current  use.  It  is  sometimes  applied,  on  the  one  hand,  to  those  who 
are  thoroughly  loyal  to  Christ,  and  to  His  truth  so  far  as  they  are  able  to 
ascertain  it,  but  who,  in  some  of  the  ways  in  which  they  set  it  forth  or 
illustrate  it,  exhibit,  or  are  regarded  by  their  critics  as  exhibiting,  rational- 
ising tendencies  ;  and,  on  the  other,  to  those  who  reject  Christ  altogether, 
and  avowedly  substitute  philosophy  or  science  for  His  Gospel.  To  neither 
of  these  classes  do  we  refer  in  this  paper,  but  to  those  who,  while  they  claim 
to  be  considered  disciples  of  Christ,  and  seek  for  their  doctrines  the  shelter 
and  sanction  of  His  great  name,  reject  the  supernatui-al  in  every  form  as 
imworthy  of  belief,  and  try  to  rear  upon  the  authority  of  Christ  as  a  teacher 
a  S3'stem  of  mere  natural  development  and  education. 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING   TO    CHEIST.  255 

nistic  to  the  Gospel  of  the  New  Testament  than  that  of 
the  Ritualist ;  for,  while  the  latter  endangers  the  Gospel 
by  adding  to  it  so  much  of  man's  device  that  it  is  often 
entirely  lost  in  that  which  envelops  it,  the  former  de- 
stroys it  by  taking  from  it  all  that  gives  it  life  and 
power.  The  essence  of  the  Gospel,  as  it  is  set  forth  at 
large  in  the  New  Testament,  is  the  good  tidings  that  our 
Father  God,  through  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  whom  He 
has  sent  into  the  world  to  take  away  its  sin,  saves  from 
sin  and  death  all  who  yield  themselves  to  the  control  of 
His  Holy  Spirit,  whose  work  in  the  world  it  is  to  con- 
vince men  of  sin  and  lead  them  to  accept  Christ  as  their 
Saviour  and  Lord,  that  they  may  be  made  like  Him,  and 
prepared  for  a  life  of  perfect  purity  and  blessedness  with 
Him  in  the  world  to  come.  There  is  in  this  a  very  large 
divine  element,  while  the  human  element  in  it  is  com- 
paratively small.  The  divine  element  is  nothing  less 
than  "  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love 
of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  The 
human  element  is  faith,  understood  of  course  in  the  large 
Scriptural  sense,  as  not  the  mere  assent  of  the  mind,  but 
also  the  consent  of  the  heart  and  the  surrender  of  the 
will.  Both  of  these  essential  elements  are  lost  in  the 
Rationalistic  gospel.  There  is  no  place  for  direct  divine 
agency  in  a  system  of  mere  ethical  instruction,  and  there 
is  as  little  room  for  faith,  in  the  Scriptural  sense  of  the 
word  ;  nothing  is  left  but  law  and  duty,  law  without  a 
sanction,  and  duty  without  any  help  to  do  it. 

Now,  if  those  who  hold  and  teach  this  barren  doc- 
trine would  give  it  forth  in  their  own  names,  or  in  the 
name  of  pagan  philosophy,  little  harm  would  be  done ; 
but  when  they  connect  it  with  the  great  and  holy  name 
of  Christ,  and  represent  it  as  His  Gospel,  they  do  a  most 
grievous  wrong.      The  injury  is   all  the  greater  because 


256  THE    GOSPEL   ACCOEDING    TO    CHRIST. 

of  tlie  plausibility  of  tlie  position  they  take.  There  is 
the  proverbial  half-truth  in  the  comparison  they  make 
between  the  teaching  of  Christ  in  the  days  of  His  flesh 
and  that  of  His  apostles  afterwards.  It  is  true  that 
there  is  a  difference,  and  that  the  earlier  is  simpler  than 
the  later ;  it  is  true  that  the  ethical  element  prepon- 
derates more  in  the  teaching  of  the  Master,  and  the 
doctrinal  in  that  of  the  apostles ;  but  these  differences,  as 
we  shall  afterwards  see,  are  only  what  are  to  be  expected 
from  the  nature  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  and  its  pro- 
gressiveness  from  the  simple  elements  to  the  fully 
developed  truth.  But  our  main  object  in  this  paper 
will  be  to  show  that,  after  all  has  been  conceded,  the 
teaching  of  Christ  Himself  concerning  His  own  Gospel 
is  in  fullest  harmony  with  that  of  the  apostles  ;  including, 
if  not  in  full  develoj)ment,  certainly  in  germ  and  essence, 
all  that  is  distinctive  of  the  apostles'  "  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God." 

In  following  out  our  inquiry  into  this  matter  we  shall 
not  select  any  single  discourse,  as  is  too  often  done  by 
those  who  wish  to  limit  the  range  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  but  shall  endeavour  to  get  an  idea  of  its  general 
scope,  and  of  those  features  on  which  Christ  Himself 
laid  special  stress.      To  this  end  let  us  inquire  : — 

I.  What  Christ  Himself  taught  as  to  the  nature 
OF  His  Gospel. 

The  great  question  here  is,  Did  He  represent  His 
Gospel  as  a  system  of  ethical  instruction,  or  as  a  way  of 
salvation  ?  Did  it  amount  to  certain  directions  how  man 
might  save  himself,  or  was  it  a  revelation  of  how  God 
would  save  him  ?  This  is  the  fundamental  question. 
On  it  depend  all  the  other  great  questions  as  to  the 
doctrines   of  our  faith  which    the  Eationalist  especially 


THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    ClliaST.  257 

dislikes  and  denounces.  We  refer  particularly  to  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  the  necessity  and  central  importance 
of  the  Atonement,  and  the  personality  and  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Is  the  Gospel  a  system  of  instruction  ? 
Then  there  must  be  at  the  head  of  it — a  Teacher.  But 
a  man  may  be  a  teacher.  We  do  not  need  even  angels 
from  heaven  to  be  at  the  head  of  our  colleges.  Of  course 
any  man  will  not  do.  He  must  be  of  exceptional 
character  and  ability.  But  to  suppose  that  God  Him- 
self should  think  it  necessary  to  come  down  to  earth  in 
order  to  found  a  school  of  morals  seems  quite  irrational. 
Thus  the  Deity  of  Christ  is  rendered  incredible.  In  the 
same  way,  if  all  that  men  need  is  good  teaching,  where 
is  the  necessity  for  atonement  ?  True,  Christ  died  ;  and 
a  great  deal  is  made  of  His  death  in  the  Scriptures. 
But  Socrates  died  also  by  his  enemies'  hands,  and  a 
great  deal  has  been  made,  and  much  more  might  be 
made,  of  his  tranquil  and  cheerful  demise,  without  any 
suggestion  of  its  having  atoning  value.  If  we  settle 
first  in  our  minds  that  instruction  is  all  that  is  needed, 
then  the  death  of  Christ  may  be  adequately  represented 
as  the  crown  of  His  teaching.  It  is  sufficient  in  that 
case  to  regard  it  as  a  glorious  example  of  faithfulness  to 
the  last  extremity,  so  that  thereby  He  enforced,  in  the 
most  impressive  way  that  could  be  conceived,  one  of  the 
great  lessons  which  in  His  life  He  taught,  the  duty  and 
the  beauty  of  self-sacrifice.  Thus  the  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement  is  set  aside.  Further,  if  Christ  be  only  a 
teacher,  who  ended  His  lectures,  as  all  earthly  teachers  do, 
when  He  died,  what  becomes  of  the  truth  concerning  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  ?  It  necessarily  disappears,  for  there 
remains  only  the  spirit  of  a  man,  and  there  is  no  other 
possible  way  in  which  to  explain  or  explain  away  the 
innumerable    passages   referring   to    the    subject  in    the 

K 


258  THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

Scriptures  tliau  by  representing  it  as  an  impersonal  in- 
fluence, just  as  we  may  say  that  the  spirit  of  Shakespeai"e 
lives  in  the  influence  of  his  dramas,  and  the  spirit  of 
Rowland  Hill  in  the  power  of  the  penny  postage.  And 
the  story  of  Pentecost  becomes  only  a  poetical  way  of 
saying  that,  after  ten  days'  meditation,  the  early  disciples 
entered  more  fully  than  they  had  ever  done  before  into 
the  spirit  of  the  teaching  of  their  Master.  Thus  we  find 
that  the  denial  of  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  is 
the  logical  outcome  of  a  partial,  and  therefore  erroneous, 
view  of  what  the  Gospel  is. 

It  is,  then,  of  great  importance  to  settle  first  what 
Christ  taught  as  to  the  nature  of  His  Gospel.  As  soon 
as  this  inquiry  is  proposed,  we  naturally  think  of  the 
Saviour's  first  formal  announcement  of  His  mission  in 
the  synagogue  at  Nazareth,  as  recorded  by  St.  Luke  : 
"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  Me,  because  He  hath 
anointed  Me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ;  He  hath 
sent  Me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance 
to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the 
acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 

Dr.  Channing  has  a  sermon*  on  this  passage,  or  rather 
on  the  first  clause  of  it,  to  which  he  confines  himself. 
He  had,  of  course,  a  perfect  right  so  to  limit  his  range  ; 
but  in  doing  so  he  gives  a  meaning  to  the  central  word 
of  his  text  which  he  could  not  have  given  it  if  he  had 
remembered  v/hat  immediately  followed.  Throughout 
the  entire  sermon  he  translates  the  old  word  gospel  by 
what  he  evidently  considers  the  modern  equivalent,  viz., 
"  moral  and  religious  culture."  Now  moral  and  religious 
culture  is  good,  very  good.  The  more  the  poor  can  have 
of  it,  and  the  more  we  all  can  have  of  it,  tlie  better.  But 
*  Comiilete  Works,  p.  60.     Williams  &  Norgate.     iSSo. 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  259 

that  moral  and  religious  culture  is  not  the  equivalent  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  is  made  abundantly  evident  before 
the  sentence  is  finished.  We  do  not  deny  that,  in  a 
certain  sense,  the  word  gospel  might  have  been  applied 
to  a  system  of  instruction.  We  speak  of  the  school  of 
Plato  and  the  school  of  Zeno  in  Greece ;  and  it  certainly 
was  a  good  thing  that  these  philosophers  did  establish 
their  schools  in  that  centre  of  the  old  world's  culture. 
We  speak  also  of  the  school  of  Christ ;  and  if  it  was  a 
good  thing  that  the  great  philosophers  of  Greece  set  up 
their  schools  in  Athens,  it  may  fairly  be  considered  as 
a  still  better  thing  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  set  up  what  is 
acknowledged  to  be  a  better  school  than  any  other  in 
Galilee.  In  a  certain  sense,  then,  we  might  say  that  the 
information  that  such  a  school  had  been  established,  and 
that  its  teachings  had  been  given  to  the  world,  was 
a  gospel,  or  good  news ;  but  to  say  that  it  is  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  is  quite  another  thing.  Moral  and  religious 
culture  represents  the  best  that  man  can  do  for  himself. 
But  all  experience  proves  that  the  best  man  can  do  for 
himself  is  not  enoug^h.  He  must  have  something'  done 
for  him,  which  only  God  can  do ;  and  the  Gosj)el  of  Christ 
is  the  good  tidings  that  God  has  done,  is  doing,  and  will 
do  for  him  all  he  needs,  if  he  will  only  allow  Him ;  and 
we  have  only  to  study  this  weighty  announcement  of  the 
Master  Himself  in  order  to  see  that  the  Gospel  which  He 
announced  is  such  a  Gospel  of  divine  salvation. 

We  might  at  the  outset  summon  to  our  aid  the  Old 
Testament  prophecies  concerning  the  Great  Deliverer  Who 
was  to  come  ;  for  Jesus  here  expressly  claims  these  as 
His  own.  He  quotes  from  the  prophet  Isaiah  one  of  the 
most  striking  of  the  Messianic  prophecies,  and  then,  by 
way  of  introducing  Himself  and  His  work,  makes  this 
momentous    declaration :    "  This    day    is    this    scripture 


200  THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

fulfilled  in  your  ears."  There  is  no  passage  in  tlie  entire 
Old  Testament  wliicli  could  have  been  more  fitly  selected 
for  the  purpose  of  advancing  His  claim  to  be  the  Messiah. 
The  very  word  is  in  it,  though  it  is  veiled  from  the  ears 
of  foreigners  like  ourselves.  To  the  Hebrew  ear  the 
passage  in  Isaiah  would  read,  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  Me,  because  He  hath  made  Me  His  Messiah  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor  ; "  and  to  a  Greek  ear  the 
passage  in  St.  Luke  would  read,  "  He  hath  made  me  His 
Christ."  Now,  was  it  only,  or  was  it  mainly,  as  a  teacher 
that  the  Jews  were  taught  in  Old  Testament  times  to 
look  forward  to  the  Messiah  that  was  to  come  ?  Was  it 
not  chiefly  as  a  Great  Deliverer,  an  Almighty  Saviour, 
that  He  was  set  forth  in  the  long  line  of  prophecy  and 
promise,  from  that  early  declaration  that  the  coming  seed 
of  the  woman  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  to  the 
closing  assurance  of  the  last  of  the  prophets,  "  The  Lord 
whom  ye  seek  shall  suddenly  couie  to  His  temple." 
True,  He  is  set  forth  as  a  prophet,  and  no  one  denies 
that  He  did  come  as  a  prophet,  and  that  His  prophetical 
oflace,  including,  of  course,  all  His  ethical  teaching,  was  an 
important  part  of  His  work ;  but  that  He  came  only  as 
a  prophet,  or  even  mainly  as  a  prophet,  is  sufficiently 
disproved  by  the  fact  that,  for  one  of  the  Messianic 
prophecies  which  so  present  Him,  there  are  twenty  and 
more  which  set  Him  forth  as  One  who  is  coming  to  do 
a  great  and  royal  work  ,of  salvation. 

The  same  view  of  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  is  fully 
borne  out  by  a  detailed  examination  of  the  text  of  our 
Lord's  discourse.  We  might  refer  first  to  the  very  way 
in  which  the  Gospel  is  referred  to  as  especially  for  the 
poor.  Schools  of  philosophy  have  not  as  a  rule  been  for 
the  poor.  A  college  is  for  the  more  cultured  and  better 
class  of  the  community.      Moral  and  spiritual  culture  is. 


THE   GOSPEL   ACCOEDING   TO    CHRIST.  26 1 

of  course,  good  for  the  poor,  if  it  could  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  them ;  but  they  are  just  the  people  whom  it 
is  hardest  to  reach  by  such  educational  influences,  A 
gospel  of  this  kind  would  be  best  adapted  to  men  who  have 
little  temptation,  very  few  burdens,  abundance  of  learned 
leisure.  And  it  is  well  known,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that 
it  is  among  the  rich  and  the  learned  and  the  leisurely 
that  Rationalism  finds  its  chief  adherents,  amongst  people 
who  have  never  had  it  suggested  to  them  by  the  hard 
pressure  of  outward  circumstances  that  they  have  wants 
deeper  than  can  be  met  by  mere  words,  however  wise. 
It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  some  light  is  thrown  upon  the 
question  before  us  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
from  the  very  first  clause  of  the  series,  in  which  our 
Saviour  speaks  of  it  as  characteristically  a  Gospel  for  the 
poor. 

But  we  need  not  delay  on  mere  inferences ;  for  we 
have  express  statements  in  the  succeeding  clauses.  Let 
us  look  at  them  and  see  if  instruction  for  the  ignorant,  or 
higher  teaching  for  the  wise,  be  a  fair  representation  of 
their  scope.  "  He,  hath  sent  Me  to  heal  the  hroken-hcarted." 
Will  an  essay  heal  a  broken  heart  ?  Did  a  course  of 
lectures  ever  do  it  ?  Did  the  most  brilliant  professor 
that  ever  filled  a  chair  of  moral  philosophy  ever  heal  one 
broken  heart  ?  He  might  most  skilfully  and  most  bril- 
liantly analyse  the  different  feelings  that  entered  into  its 
woe ;  but  to  take  away  the  woe — that  he  could  no  more 
do  than  he  could  raise  the  dead. 

"  Canst  thou  minister  to  a  mind  diseased  1 
Pluck  from  the  memory  a  rooted  sorrow, 
Raze  out  the  written  troubles  of  the  brain. 
And  with  some  sweet  oblivious  antidote 
Cleanse  the  stuffed  bosom  of  that  perilous  stuff 
Which  weiL;hs  upon  the  heart  ?  " 


262  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

To  ask  such  a  question  of  man  at  all  is  to  call  fortli  a 
hojoeless  No.  And  if  tlie  Lord  Jesus  had  been  only  a  very 
learned  Eabbi,  a  very  wise  and  great  and  good  man, 
could  He  have  done  it  ?  No :  it  is  not  human  learning' 
but  divine  jDOwer  that  is  needed  for  the  healing  of  the 
broken-hearted.  "  To  'prcacli  deliverance  to  the  captives." 
What  is  suggested  here  as  to  the  work  of  Christ  ?  Going 
into  a  prison  cell  and  reading  in  richly  modulated  tones 
an  eloquent  discourse  upon  freedom,  coupled  with  a  solemn 
reminder  that  eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  it  ?  Or  is 
it  rather  the  overthrow  of  the  tyrant,  the  breaking  open 
of  his  prison,  the  striking  off  of  his  captive's  fetters  and 
setting  him  free  ?  Is  it  not  much  more  than  education  ? 
Is  it  anything  less  than  salvation  ?  "  And  recovering  of 
sight  to  the  hiind."  Are  there  any  directions  which  can 
be  given  to  a  blind  man  by  which  he  can  get  his  sight 
back  again  by  any  exertions  of  his  own  ?  Would  a 
course  of  lectures  by  the  most  eminent  oculist  that  ever 
lived  be  of  any  avail  ?  Is  it  human  wisdom  or  is  it 
divine  power  that  is  wanted  here  ?  "  To  set  at  lihertg 
them  that  arc  bruised"  There  is  a  lower  deep  here  than 
even  the  depths  of  the  dungeon.  Mark  the  progression 
in  the  series  of  terms  which  describe  that  lost  condition 
from  which  the  Saviour  comes  to  rescue  men.  The  poor, 
the  broken-hearted,  the  captive  in  the  dungeon,  blind 
and  bruised, — could  any  language  more  powerfully  de- 
pict man's  lost  condition  as  a  sinner  ?  Ah  !  these  are 
deeper  needs  than  can  be  met  by  moral  and  religious 
culture.  The  one  thing  needful  for  the  poor,  broken- 
hearted captive,  blind  and  bruised,  is  not  instruction ;  it 
is  help  and  healing,  light  and  liberty.  And  must  not 
all  this  come  from  One  who  is  mightier  than  all  the 
powers  that  can  be  arrayed  against  Him,  Master  of  all 
that  makes  for  human  weal  or  woe  ? 


THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO    CHPJST.  263 

It  may  be  good  news  indeed,  and  therefore  something 
of  a  gospel,  to  a  man  of  learned  leisure  sitting  iu  his 
study  with  his  books  around  him,  to  know  that  many 
hundred  years  ago  there  lived  a  great  philosopher  whose 
instructions  on  the  highest  subjects  were  more  valuable 
than  those  of  all  other  instructors  put  together ;  but  let 
even  such  an  one  once  realise  that  he  is  a  sinner  ;  that  his 
heart  is  at  enmity  against  God ;  that,  however  correct  his 
outward  life  iHay  have  been,  his  inner  life  cannot  bear  the 
scrutinising  eye  of  the  Judge  in  the  Great  Day  of  final 
reckoning — let  him  realise  all  this,  and  he  will  find  that 
even  he  needs  not  only  a  wise  instructor,  bnt  a  compas- 
sionate Saviour,  a  Divine  Helper,  Healer,  and  Comforter, 
such  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  here  represents  Himself  to  be. 

It  is  true  that  our  Lord  does  not  at  this  early  stage 
bring  prominently  into  view  the  great  doctrines  of  which 
we  have  been  speaking — His  own  Divinity,  the  need 
of  atonement  in  order  to  open  a  way  of  salvation,  and 
the  necessity  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  work  in  the  hearts  of 
men.  There  are  very  good  reasons  for  this  reticence, 
as  we  shall  afterwards  see  when  we  shall  have  before  us 
what  Christ  taught  on  these  subjects,  as  soon  as,  in  His 
wisdom.  He  recognised  that  the  time  to  unfold  them 
had  come.  But  meanwhile  who  can  fail  to  notice  how 
thoroughly  everything  in  this  preliminary  announcement 
of  the  Gospel  is  in  harmony  with  these  aiterwards  de- 
veloped truths  ?  In  the  opening  sentence  the  work  is 
recognised  as  that  which  God  alone  can  do.  "  The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is  tcpion  Me,  because  He  hath  anointed  Me  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor."  The  same  thought  is 
left  on  the  minds  of  the  listeners  by  the  concluding 
words  :  "  To  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 
And  this  very  expression,  "  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord" — i.e.,' the  year  of  acceptance,  or  grace,  or  favour 


264  THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDIXG    TO    CHRIST. 

of  the  Lord — of  which  the  Jubilee  was  a  type,  is  fully 
understood  only  in  the  light  of  the  great  propitiation 
which  was  to  be  offered  up  on  Calvary ;  for  if  the  procla- 
mation of  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord  was  simply,  as 
the  Rationalists  would  tell  us,  the  informing  men  that 
God  was  ready  to  pardon  their  sins  and  receive  them  into 
His  favour, — if  it  was  simply  this  announcement,  this 
piece  of  information  or  instruction,  without  any  special 
work  by  which  the  favour  was  to  be  secured,  what  title 
had  our  Lord's  mission  to  this  distinction  above  the  mis- 
sion of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  for  instance,  or  of  any  of 
the  prophets  ?  For  do  not  the  writings  of  all  of  them 
abound  with  offers  of  forgiveness  ?  This  expression,  then, 
"  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,"  which 
Christ  claims  to  be  fulfilled  in  His  mission,  prepares  the 
mind  for  some  special  work  which  He  is  anointed  to 
accomplish,  and  in  the  accomplishment  of  which  He  shall 
usher  in  the  dispensation  of  divine  grace  ;  and  what  work 
can  this  be,  if  not  the  great  Atonement  by  which  He 
broke  down  the  prison  walls  in  which  we  are  confined, 
and  opened  up  the  way  of  access  to  the  light  and  liberty 
of  the  children  of  God  ? 

The  prominence  which  our  Saviour  gives  to  His  own 
personality  is  another  feature  well  worthy  of  note.  He 
makes  comparatively  little  reference,  we  may  say  He 
makes  no  reference  at  all,  to  the  truths  He  is  about  to 
teach.  He  directs  tlie  attention  of  the  people  to  Himself 
at  the  outset,  and  keeps  their  thoughts  there  throughout, 
as  is  manifest  from  the  emphatic  and  repeated  "  Me." 
The  apostles  thus  were  only  following  their  Master  when 
they  made  Christ  Himself,  "  Christ,  and  Him  crucified," 
the  centre  of  all  their  teaching. 

It  is  unnecessary,  however,  to  dwell  on  these  points 
now ;   they  will  appear  much  more  clearly  as  we  proceed. 


THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO   CHEIST.  265 

Meantime  it  is  made  at  all  events  abundantly  evident, 
from  tliis  preliminary  announcement  alone,  that  tlie  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  represented  by  Him  as  a  mere 
system  of  instruction,  by  following  which  a  man  may 
learn  how  to  save  himself,  but  as,  above  all,  the  offer  of 
a  Saviour,  with  all  human  sympathy  indeed,  but  at  the 
same  time  with  all  divine  power  to  meet  the  deepest 
needs  of  the  worst  of  men. 
Let  us  now  inquire — 

II.  What  Christ  Himself  taught  as  to  the  centre 
AND  PIVOT  OF  His  Gosfel. 

It  is  universally  acknowledged  by  students  of  the 
Gospels  that  our  Lord's  conversation  with  His  disciples 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cesarea  Philippi  marks  a  great 
crisis  in  His  history,  and  a  definite  and  important  stage 
in  His  teaching.  It  is  recorded  by  all  the  three  Synop- 
tists,  and  with  great  fulness  and  emphasis  by  St.  Matthew 
especially,  from  whose  account  it  is  evident  that  it  was 
intended  to  be  the  summing  up  of  one  great  lesson  and 
the  beginning  of  another.  The  finished  lesson  is  the 
truth  concerning  His  own  Person ;  the  lesson  ju^t  begin- 
ning is  the  truth  concerning  the  necessity  of  His  being 
offered  ujd  as  an  atoning  sacrifice :  "  from  that  time 
forth  began  Jesus  to  show  unto  His  disciples  how  that 
He  must  go  unto  Jerusalem,  and  suffer  many  things  of 
the  elders,  and  chief  priests,  and  scribes,  and  be  killed, 
and  be  raised  again  the  third  day."  We  shall  at  present 
restrict  our  attention  to  the  finished  lesson,  that  which 
regarded  the  Person  of  Christ,  which  is,  as  we  shall  see, 
set  forth  in  this  remarkable  conversation  as  the  very 
centre  and  pivot  of  the  Gospel.  The  lesson  just  com- 
mencing will  be  better  dealt  with  at  a  later  stage,  after 
the  disciples  have  had  time  to  learn  it. 


2  66  THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING   TO    CHRLST. 

We  have  already  remarked  the  prominence  given  by 
our  Lord  to  His  own  personality,  even  in  His  first  an- 
nouncement of  His  Gospel.  This  feature  of  His  teaching 
is  manifest  throughout  His  ministry.  Even  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  so  confidently  appealed  to  by  Rationalists 
as  free  from  any  such  dogma  as  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  is 
no  exception  ;  proof  of  which  may  be  found  in  the  solemn 
declaration  at  its  close :  "  Many  shall  say  unto  Me  in 
that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy 
Name  ?  and  in  Thy  Name  have  cast  out  devils  ?  and  in 
Thy  Name  done  many  wonderful  works  ?  And  then  will 
I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you  :  depart  from  Me, 
ye  that  work  iniquity." 

But  while,  throughout  all  His  teaching,  divine  preroga- 
tive and  power  are  invariably  assumed,  there  is  no  definite 
dogmatic  instruction  on  the  subject.  It  was  evident  that 
He  intended  not  so  much  to  tell  His  disciples  as  to  slioto 
them  Who  He  was.  It  was  in  His  deeds  rather  than 
in  His  words  that  He  expected  them  to  read  the  great 
lessons  of  the  Incarnation.  As  an  illustration  of  this 
method  of  Jesus  we  may  point  to  His  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion of  John  the  Baptist,  "  Art  Thou  He  that  should 
come,  or  look  we  for  another  ?  "  Instead  of  telling  him 
in  set  terms  that  He  was  indeed  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,  He  gives  this  reply  :  "  Go  and  show  John 
again  those  things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see  :  the  blind 
receive  their  sight,  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are 
cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and 
the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them."  In  con- 
formity with  this  method,  He  does  not  hastily  put  His 
disciples  to  the  test  on  this  great  theme.  He  gives  them 
time  to  see,  and  think,  and  form  their  own  conclusions. 
But  now,  as  we  have  seen,  He  has  reached  a  great  crisis 
in  His  history.      Henceforward  His  path  will  be  one  less 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCOEDING    TO    CHRIST.  267 

of  manifested  glory  than  of  deepening  sliarae.  Dr.  Eder- 
slieim,  in  liis  "  Life  and  Times  of  the  Messiah,"  divides 
tlie  ministry  of  Jesns  into  two  parts,  with  the  scenes  in 
the  region  around  Cesarea  Philippi  as  the  turning-point. 
The  former  he  speaks  of  as  "  the  Ascent,  from  the  River 
Jordan  to  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration;"  the  latter,  as  "the 
Descent,  from  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  into  the  Valley 
of  Humiliation  and  Death."  The  former  of  these  periods 
was  the  fit  one  for  manifesting  His  Divine  Glory,  the  latter 
for  teaching  the  lesson  of  His  Atoning  Sacrifice.  Accord- 
ingly, before  He  enters  on  the  darker  experiences  of  His 
life  and  work,  ere  yet  the  sorrowful  journey  to  the  place 
of  sacrifice  is  begun.  He  must  make  sure  that  His  followers 
have  learned  the  great  lesson  which  belongs  to  the  period 
of  His  ministry  just  closing,  and  so  we  read  that  when 
Jesus  came  into  the  coasts  of  Cesarea  Philippi  He  asked 
certain  questions,  the  manifest  object  of  which  was  to 
ascertain  whether  His  disciples  had  attained  to  clear  and 
decided  convictions  as  to  His  personality ;  and  when  it 
was  evident  that  they  had,  He  marked  the  occasion  as 
one  of  the  very  greatest  importance.  How  plain  is  it 
from  all  this,  that  though  our  Lord  Himself,  for  strong 
and  sufficient  reasons,  did  not  as  a  rule  urge  His  claim 
to  be  the  Son  of  God,  often,  in  fact,  forbade  that  anything 
should  be  said  about  it,  yet  when  the  fitting  opportunity 
came,  He  not  only  made  it,  but  insisted  upon  it ;  and, 
far  from  treating  it  as  a  matter  of  indifference,  whether 
it  was  allowed  or  not,  made  it  manifest  that  He  re- 
garded its  full  acknowledgment  as  absolutely  essential 
and  fundamental. 

It  may  serve  to  set  all  this  in  a  still  stronger  light  if 
we  compare  in  this  respect,  or  rather  contrast,  the  posi- 
tion taken  by  Christ  with  that  taken  by  His  forerunner, 
who,  be  it  remembered,  was  no  ordinary  man,  but  one  of 


268  THE    GOSPEL    ACCOr.DING   TO    CHRIST. 

whom  Christ  Himself  said,  "  Among  men  that  are  boru 
of  women  there  hath  not  risen  a  greater  tlian  John  the 
Baptist,"  and  who  therefore  takes  rank  as  the  very  greatest 
of  all  the  Old  Testament  prophets.  It  is  true  that  Jesus 
began  His  work  with  the  same  message  as  John :  "  Ee- 
pent  ye ;  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand ; "  but 
it  is  as  plain  as  it  can  possibly  be  that  He  claimed  an 
entirely  different  relation  to  the  Kingdom.  John  reso- 
lutely kept  himself  in  the  background,  retreating  as  it 
were  behind  his  great  message,  as  every  ordinary  ambas- 
sador of  God  should  do,  and  then  suddenly  disappeared 
from  view.  He  was  "  a  voice,"  no  more — himself  per- 
sonally, nothing.  But  Jesus  identifies  Himself  with  His 
message.  In  preaching  the  Kingdom  He  preaches  Him- 
self. He,  in  fact,  took  just  as  much  pains  to  make 
Himself  the  great  object  of  His  disciples'  regard  as  John 
the  Baptist  had  taken  to  keep  his  disciples  from  a  similar 
homage  to  their  master.  What  was  the  reason  of  this 
wonderful  difference  ?  Was  it  that  John  the  Baptist 
was  the  humbler  man  of  the  two,  the  less  selfish,  the  less 
disposed  to  self-assertion  ?  Was  it  not  this,  that  while 
John  the  Baptist  proclaimed  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Another,  even  of  One  before  Whom  he  bowed  low  in 
humble  adoi'ation.  One  the  latchet  of  Whose  shoes  he  was 
unworthy  to  stoop  down  and  unloose,  Jesus  proclaimed 
His  own  Kingdom.  The  salvation  it  brought  to  men  was 
His  own  salvation.  The  faith  it  exacted  from  men  was 
faith,  not  in  another,  but  in  Himself  Hence  it  is  that 
in  summoning  the  subjects  of  the  Kingdom  the  call  is, 
"  Follow  Me."  In  laying  down  the  law  of  the  Kingdom, 
it  is  not,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  according  to  the  time- 
honoured  formula  of  the  prophets  of  Israel ;  it  is,  "  Verily, 
verily,  /  say  unto  you."  In  healing  the  leper,  it  is,  *'  I 
will ;  be  thou   clean."      In  answering  the  application  of 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  269 

tlie  blind  men  of  Jericho,  He  inquires,  "  Believe  ye  tliafc 
I  am  able  to  do  tliis  ?  "      In  making  the  great  offer  of 
the  blessings  of  the  Kingdom  it  is,  "  Come  unto  Me,  .   .   . 
and  I  will  give  you  rest."      And,  in  pressing  the  claims 
of  the  Kingdom,  it   is   in   this    astounding  language — 
astounding,  that  is,  on  any  other  supposition  than  that  of 
His  true  and  proper  Divinity — "  He  that  loveth  father 
or  mother  more  than  Me  is  not  worthy  of  Me ;   and  he 
that  loveth  son  or  daughter  more  than  Me  is  not  worthy 
of  Me.      And  he  that  taketh  not  his  cross,  and  followeth 
after  Me,  is  not  worthy  of  Me."      From  all  this  (and  every 
intelligent  reader    of  the   Gospels  knows  that  this  is  a 
specimen  of  the  whole  style  and  strain  of  our  Saviour's 
teaching)  it  is  evident  that,  while  John  the  Baptist  kept 
himself  quite  in  the  background,  Jesus  brought  Himself 
ever  into  the  foreground.      And,  in  this  particular,  Jesus 
was  distinguished,  not  only  from  John  the  Baptist,  who 
came  substantially  with  the  same   message,  but  from  all 
who  have  ever  come  with  any  message  from  God.     The 
messenger  is  always  hid,  as  it  were,  behind  his  message. 
This  is  just  what  we  expect  of  every  true  messenger,  if 
he  be  only  a  messenger.      An  ambassador   may  indeed 
magnify  his  office  ;  but  if  he  magnify  himself,  and  speak 
as  if  he  himself  were  the    potentate    he  represents,  he 
only  makes  himself  ludicrous  and  contemptible.      And  if 
Jesus   had   been    only  a   messenger   from  God,   only  an 
ambassador,  how  could   we  explain,  in  consistency  with 
His   acknowledged   humility    and    self-forgetfulness,    the 
way  in  which  He  uniformly  speaks  of  Himself?      But  if 
we  bear  in  mind  Who  He  was,  if  we  keep  before  us  the 
fact  that  He  was  not  an  ambassador  merely,  but  Himself 
the  King,  not  a  messenger  of  God,  but  God  Himself  in 
human  form,  then  these  strong  personal  claims  are  seen 
to  be  thoroughly  natural,  and  perfectly  consistent  with 


2/0  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDIXG   TO    CHPJST. 

that  self-abnegation  and  deep  humility  Avhich  are  so  con- 
spicuous in  His  entire  life  and  character. 

We  see,  then,  that  there  is  nothing  unnatural,  or  out  of 
keeping  with  the  attitude  He  has  taken  from  the  begin- 
ning, in  the  questions  which  our  Saviour  puts  so  pointedly 
to  His  disciples  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cesarea  Philippi : 
"  Who  do  men  say  that  I  am  ?  "  "  Who  do  ye  say  that 
I  am  ?  "  Such  questions  would  have  been  most  extra- 
ordinary, if  He  had  been  only  a  teacher  come  from  God, 
What  should  we  think  of  any  teacher  on  any  subject 
whatever,  who  would  say  more  about  himself  than  about 
anything  else  ?  There  are  such  teachers  and  preachers. 
There  are  those  who,  professing  to  deliver  a  message,  are 
really  exhibiting  themselves.  There  are  those  who  are 
much  less  careful  about  delivering  their  message  rightly, 
or  teaching  their  subject  well,  than  they  are  about  getting 
an  answer  to  the  questions,  "  What  do  men  think  of  me  ?  " 
"  What  do  you  think  of  me  ?  "  We  say  there  are  such 
teachers  and  preachers ;  but  they  are  always  despised  ; 
and  most  justly.  Suppose  a  minister  of  the  Gospel 
were  to  preach  even  a  single  sermon  about  himself — his 
country,  his  parentage,  his  powers,  his  dignity,  his  pro- 
spects, and  so  forth — what  would  men  think  of  him  ?  It 
may  often  be  of  great  importance  to  society  what  a  man 
is — it  is  of  very  little  consequence  who  he  is.  It  may 
be  interesting  to  know  the  name  of  St.  Matthew's  father 
and  mother ;  but  it  is  of  no  consequence.  The  Apostle 
Paul  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  that  ever  lived,  one 
whose  life  has  been  most  fruitful  of  great  results,  and 
yet  even  he  would  have  made  himself  ridiculous  by  asking 
such  a  question  as  Jesus  here  asks  of  His  disciples.  For 
you  will  observe  the  question  is  not.  What  am  I  ?  but 
Who  am  I  ?      Whose  Son  am  I  ? 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  first  answer  our  Saviour 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  2J I 

gets  is  the  rationalistic  one.  Tlie  orcliuary  people  of  tlie 
time  class  Him  amongst  great  men  indeed,  amongst  the 
greatest  men  that  ever  lived — still  only  among  men : 
"  Some  say  that  Thon  art  John  the  Baptist ;  some,  Elias  ; 
and  others,  Jeremias,  or  one  of  the  prophets."  Is  the 
answer  satisfactory  ?  Does  Jesus  accept  the  verdict  of 
these  Unitarians  ?  Nay ;  He  turns  from  them  to  His 
true  disciples,  and  He  asks  them,  "  Who  do  ye  say  that 
I  am  ?  "  and  He  gets  for  answer,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God."  This  answer  He  accepts, 
and  attaches  so  much  importance  to  it  as  to  pronounce 
a  most  special  benediction  on  him  who  has  first  given  it, 
and  at  the  same  time  marks  the  height  and  depth  and 
reach  of  it  by  the  solemn  declaration,  "  Flesh  and  blood 
hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  My  Father  Who  is  in 
heaven." 

It  seems  incredible  that  there  should  be  those  who 
explain  away  this  second  answer  so  as  to  make  it  mean 
no  more  than  the  first ;  yet  so  it  is.  Any  candid  person 
can  see  in  a  moment  that  this  is  mere  trifling  Avith  a 
great  subject.  Surely  it  is  as  evident  as  human  lan- 
guage can  possibly  make  it,  that  when  St.  Peter  calls 
Jesus  "  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  he  indicates  a  sense 
quite  different  from  that  in  which  a  man  can  be  called 
the  son  of  God,  a  relation  so  distinct  and  proper  and 
peculiar,  that  it  is  shared,  and  can  be  shared,  with  no 
other. 

It  is  time  now  that  we  should  give  careful  considera- 
tion to  a  point  which  has  been  touched  before,  but 
demands  separate  and  distinct  treatment ;  we  refer  to 
our  Lord's  delay  in  bringing  out  a  truth  so  very  im- 
portant. Why  is  He  so  long  in  putting  this  question  ? 
Why  did  He  not  make  all  as  clear  at  the  beginning  as 
He  makes  it  now  ?     We  have  already  indicated  a  reason 


272  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHPJST. 

for  this  in  the  raetliod  of  self-revelation  adopted  by  our 
Lord.  But  there  are  other  reasons  which  are  sufficiently 
obvious  on  reflection.  There  were  reasons  for  His  reti- 
cence, both  as  regarded  His  enemies  and  as  regarded  His 
friends.  As  to  tho  former,  we  have  only  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that,  again  and  again,  as,  for  example,  on  this 
very  occasion  (Matt.  xvi.  20),  He  cautions  His  disciples 
and  others  not  to  make  Him  known,  and  gives  as  reason 
that  His  hour  has  not  yet  come.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  it  was  this  claim  of  Divinity  that  more  than 
aught  else  stirred  up  His  enemies  against  Him.  Once 
and  again,  when  He  claimed  equality  with  God,  "  the 
Jews  took  up  stones  to  stone  Him."  It  will  be  remem- 
bered, too,  that  it  was  when  He  was  asked  directly 
whether  He  were  the  Son  of  God,  and  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  that  the  High  Priest  rent  his  clothes  and 
said  that  no  further  witness  was  necessary,  inasmuch  as 
He  thereby  stood  convicted  of  blasphemy.  If,  then.  He 
had  publicly  advanced  His  claim  to  be  the  Son  of  God 
at  the  first,  it  would  have  led  to  His  apprehension  and 
death  long  before  the  fulness  of  the  time.  The  reason, 
therefore,  is  obvious,  so  far  as  His  enemies  were  con- 
cerned. But  there  is  just  as  plain  a  reason,  when  we 
think  of  His  relation  to  His  friends.  What  would  have 
been  the  consequence  if  He  had  told  His  disciples  at  the 
first  that  He  was  indeed  the  Son  of  the  living  God  ? 
Would  it  not  have  been  to  overwhelm  them  with  dismay  ? 
When  the  Apostle  Peter  witnessed  one  of  the  early  ex- 
hibitions of  the  power  of  Christ,  he  was  so  oppressed 
with  a  sense  of  the  Presence  in  which  he  was,  that  he 
was  constrained  to  say,  ''  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a 
sinful  man,  0  Lord."  And  if  this  was  the  effect  of  an 
isolated  miracle  upon  the  bravest  of  the  apostles,  what 
would  have  been  the  consequence  of  a  full  revelation  of 


THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  273 

His  Divine  Giorj  to  His  disciples,  ere  yet  they  had 
learned  to  know,  and  love,  and  trust  Him  as  a  man  and 
a  brother  ?  It  would,  indeed,  have  frustrated  the  very 
end  and  purpose  of  His  Incarnation,  which  was  that  He 
might  come  near  to  man,  that  He  might  hold  loving, 
friendly,  unembarrassed  intercourse  with  him,  and  thus 
lead  him  up  gently  from  knowledge  to  knowledge,  from 
strength  to  strength,  from  grace  to  grace,  from  glory  to 
glory,  until  at  last,  fully  prepared  for  appearing  before 
God,  he  should  see  Him  as  He  is.  To  illustrate  this  point, 
let  us  think  of  our  Queen's  first  visit  to  the  cottages  of 
the  poor  in  the  North  of  Scotland.  She  began  by  going 
quite  incognito,  or,  where  that  was  impracticable,  with 
as  little  of  the  queenly  and  as  much  of  the  womanly 
as  possible.  Her  simple  unassuming  manners  won  the 
hearts  of  the  poor ;  and  there  was  kindly,  familiar, 
pleasant  intercourse.  Would  the  intercourse  have  been 
of  the  same  kind  if  she  had  gone  in  her  royal  robes, 
entered  in  stately  magnificence,  and  announced  herself 
as  Queen  of  England  ?  Clearly,  in  this  case,  all  would 
have  been  stiffness  and  formality,  and  the  most  pleasant 
part  of  it  would  have  been  the  going  away.  This  is,  of 
course,  a  very  humble  and  inadequate  illustration,  but, 
as  an  illustration,  it  may  help  us  a  little.  We  can  see 
in  a  moment  how  much  kinder  it  was ;  we  can  see,  in 
fact,  how  necessary  it  was  for  the  success  of  His  mission 
of  love,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  should  conceal  at  first  His 
true  Divinity  even  from  His  most  trusted  disciples,  that 
He  should  only  gradually  reveal  Himself  to  them  as  they 
were  able  to  bear  it.  They  have  now,  however,  been  about 
two  years  with  Him  ;  and  the  truth  has  been  gradually 
dawning  on  their  minds.  He  sees  that  it  is  time  that 
their  convictions  should  begin  to  take  form  ;  and  hence 
the  putting  of  the  great  question  at  this  particular  time. 

S 


2  74  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

We  are  not  to  suppose,  indeed,  that  tlie  full  truth  is 
even  yet  steadily  and  constantly  realised  by  the  disciples. 
They  have  obtained  a  glimpse  of  it,  such  a  glimpse  as 
enables  them  to  put  the  thought  into  language  ;  but  it 
is  evident  from  the  whole  subsequent  history  that  they 
did  not  fully  take  it  in  until  after  their  Lord's  resurrec- 
tion and  the  descent  of  the  Spirit,  The  great  truth  has 
been  floating  before  their  minds  up  till  this  time  in  vague, 
indefinite  forms,  in  broken  glimpses  and  gleams  ;  it  now 
assumes  a  definite  form  and  finds  expression  for  itself; 
but  not  till  long  after  does  it  take  full  possession  of  their 
souls.  Hence  it  is  that  we  have  to  wait  for  the  utter- 
ance of  those  who  were  filled  with  the  Spirit,  before  we 
have  the  full  development  of  the  doctrine.  It  is  true 
that  Jesus  never  develops  the  doctrine  of  His  own 
Divinity  in  the  clear  and  full  way  that  St.  John  does  in 
the  beginning  of  his  Gospel,  or  St,  Paul,  as,  e.g.,  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Colossians  (chap.  i.  15  —  17),  or  the  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  in  his  first  chapter.  But 
we  see  clearly  the  reason — it  is  because  His  disciples 
are  not  able  to  bear  it  yet.  Still,  though  He  does  not 
expressly  announce  Himself  as  the  Creator  of  all  worlds, 
and  the  Upholder  of  the  universe.  He  speaks  of  Himself 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  perfectly  evident  that  He 
claimed  Divinity  in  its  fullest,  largest  sense,  in  all  the 
plenitude"  of  its  prerogative  and  power.  Who  but  the 
Most  High  could  without  arrogance  have  made  such  de- 
mands on  all  mankind  as  those  which  are  made  by  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  claiming  as  He  does  the  homage  of  every  heart, 
the  service  of  every  life,  nay,  the  absolute  sacrifice  of  every- 
thing for  His  sake  ?  Who  but  the  Infinite  and  Eternal 
could  without  audacity  have  undertaken  to  control  the 
minds  and  hearts  and  lives  of  men  that  should  live  on 
earth  centuries  after  He  had  passed  away  from  it,  or  pro- 


THE    GOSPEL   ACCOKDING    TO    CHRIST.  2/5 

mised  to  be  present  wherever  two  or  tliree  of  His  people 
were  gathered  together  in  all  the  world  to  the  end  of 
time  ?  Who  but  the  great  God  could  without  blasphemy 
have  repi'esented  Himself  as  sitting  on  the  Throne  of 
Glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  Him,  welcoming  the 
righteous  to  the  Kingdom  above,  and  sending  the  wicked 
to  the  regions  of  woe,  on  the  sole  ground  of  the  way  in 
which  they  had  treated  Himself?  Clearly,  most  clearly, 
does  the  Saviour  make  Himself  the  great  centre,  the 
great  subject  of  His  own  preaching.  He  makes  the  ques- 
tion, "  Who  am  I  ?"  the  great  question  of  theology.  He 
makes  His  own  Divine  Sonship  the  great  foundation  on 
which  His  Church  is  built.  The  true  and  proper  Divinity 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is,  according  to  Himself,  the 
very  centre  and  pivot  of  His  Gospel. 
Our  third  inquiry  shall  be — 

III.  What  Christ  Himself  taught  as  to  the  sum 

AND  substance  OF  HiS  GoSPEL. 

To  discover  this  we  naturally  look  for  some  passage  at 
the  very  glose  of  the  Saviour's  ministry  ;  just  as,  in  our 
inquiry  as  to  what  He  taught  in  regard  to  the  nature  of 
His  Gospel,  we  looked  for  a  passage  at  its  opening.  And 
what  we  are  in  search  of  again  we  find  in  the  pages  of 
St.  Luke,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  especially  under- 
took "to  set  forth  in  order"  (chap.  i.  I -3)  what  he  knew 
of  Christ  and  His  words,  and  is  therefore  the  most  likely 
of  all  the  Evangelists  to  preserve  and  record  at  the  be- 
ginning and  at  the  close  the  most  comprehensive  utter- 
ances of  the  Master.  The  following,  then,  are  the  last 
words  of  Christ  which  St.  Luke  records  :  "  And  He  said 
unto  them,  These  are  the  words  which  I  spake  unto  you, 
while  I  was  yet  with  you,  that  all  things  must  be  fulfilled 
which  were  written  in  the  Law  of  Moses,  and  in  the 


276  THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

Propliets,  and  in  the  Psalms,  concerning  Me.  Then 
opened  He  their  understanding,  that  they  might  under- 
stand the  scriptures,  and  said  unto  them,  Thus  it  is 
written,  and  thus  it  behoved  Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise 
from  the  dead  the  third  day :  and  that  repentance  and 
remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  His  name  among 
all  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem.  And  ye  are  witnesses 
of  these  things.  And,  behold,  I  send  the  promise  of  My 
Father  upon  you;  but  tarry  ye  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem, 
imtil  ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high." 

It  will  be  at  once  seen  that  this  concluding  summary 
bears  fully  out  what  we  have  already  discovered  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  Gospel,  and  as  to  the  central  importance  of 
the  personality  of  Christ  Himself.  As  to  the  former  point, 
who  dares  say  that  these  most  weighty  last  words  of  Christ 
convey  the  impression  that  He  came  as  a  mere  Teacher 
of  morals,  giving  us  good  advice  as  to  how  we  ought  to 
live,  and  leaving  us  to  do  the  best  we  can  to  follow  it  ? 
Who  can  deny  that  they  plainly  intimate  that  the  great 
object  of  His  coming  was,  not  merely  to  show  us  what  we 
ought  to  do,  but  to  do  for  us  what  we  could  not,  and 
cannot  by  any  means,  do  for  ourselves  ?  As  to  the  other 
point,  the  central  importance  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  we 
find  it  no  less  marked  in  this  concluding  summary  than 
it  has  been  throughout,  and  especially  in  the  epoch- 
making  conversation  at  Cesarea  Philippi.  The  entire  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  are  here  dealt  with  as  a  testimony 
to  the  coming  Christ.  From  the  ethics  of  the  law, 
from  the  rites  of  the  Jewish  Church,  the  thought  of  the 
apostles  is  at  once  carried  forward  to  Him  to  Whom  the 
Law  and  the  Prophets  and  the  Psalmists  all  bear  witness. 
The  focal  point  of  all  the  light  that  has  been  shining  in 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  from  the  beginning 
could  not  be  more  strikingly  marked  than  in  these  words, 


THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  277 

"  concerning  Me."  And  tlmt  the  Person  of  Christ  is  to 
have  the  same  central  position  in  the  New  Covenant  is 
marked  by  the  emphatic  words,  "  in  His  name,"  con- 
nected with  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  to  be 
preached  among  all  nations.  We  thus  find,  in  this  con- 
cluding summary,  abundant  confirmation  of  the  main 
points  already  reached. 

But  what  is  most  remarkable  in  this  summing  up  of 
the  Gospel  is  the  outstanding  prominence  given  to  the 
new  doctrine  which  Christ  only  began  to  teach  His 
disciples  on  the  occasion  of  the  conversation  at  Cesarea 
Philippi.  As  we  follow  the  history  from  that  point 
onwards  we  find  the  subject  again  and  again  referred  to 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  plain  that  it  was  the  subject 
above  all  others  to  which  the  Master  wished,  in  that 
second  and  most  important  stage  of  His  ministry,  to  turn 
His  disciples'  thoughts  ;  and  now  here,  when  all  has  been 
accomplished,  we  find  it  set  forth  as  the  very  sum  and 
substance  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  not  the  coming  into  the 
world,  it  is  not  the  pure  and  spotless  life,  it  is  not  the 
marvellous  teaching,  it  is  not  even  the  healing ;  it  is  the 
suffering,  it  is  the  dying  and  the  rising  again,  which  is 
given  as  the  ground  on  which  repentance  and  remission 
of  sins  are  to  be  preached  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  We  thus 
find  that  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ,  sealed  by  His 
resurrection  from  the  dead,  is  the  substance  of  the  Gospel 
according  to  Christ. 

It  is  a  favourite  assertion  with  those  who  wish  to  get 
rid  of  all  that  is  especially  distinctive  in  the  Gospel,  to 
say  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  was  an  invention 
of  the  Apostle  Paul  and  other  philosophising  disciples  of 
Christ ;  that  He  Himself  says  nothing  about  it ;  that  in- 
stead of  talking  about  atonement  and  justification,  and  such 
matters  of  theology.  He  simply  tells  us  to  love  our  neigh- 


278  THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

bour  as  ourselves,  to  speak  the  trutli,  to  pay  our  debts, 
and  work  our  passage  to  heaven  like  honest  men.  They 
point  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  ask,  Where  is 
your  doctrine  of  Atonement  ?  Not  a  word  about  it. 
They  take  up  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  say, 
Where  is  your  doctrine  of  Atonement  ?  The  prodigal 
offers  no  sacrifice,  gets  no  one  to  offer  a  sacrifice  for  him ; 
he  simply  comes  back,  and  is  welcome.  All  which  sounds 
very  plausible,  and  is  very  apt  to  mislead  those  who  have 
not  looked  carefully  into  the  matter,  or  who  do  not  take 
time  to  reflect  how  unfair  it  is  to  say  that  Christ  did  not 
teach  such-and-such  a  doctrine,  because  He  did  not  teach 
it  in  such-and-such  discourses.  It  is  to  no  purpose  to 
show  that  there  is  no  mention  of  the  Atonement  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  in  most  of  the  Parables,  if  in 
the  first  place  we  can  give  the  reason  why  it  is  not 
mentioned  there,  and  in  the  second  place  can  show  that 
it  is  very  strongly  insisted  on  elsewhere ;  both  of  which 
can  very  easily  be  done. 

As  to  the  reasons  for  reticence  on  the  subject  of  the 
Atonement,  there  is  first  the  general  fact  of  the  pro- 
gressiveness  of  the  teaching  of  Christ.  He  began  with 
that  which  was  simpler,  and  led  His  disciples  on  step  by 
step  to  that  which  was  more  difiicult.  He  knew  what 
was  in  man  as  well  as  what  was  of  God,  and  accordingly 
He  had  wisdom  and  skill  enough  to  adapt  His  revelation 
of  truth  to  the  stage  of  His  disciples'  advancement.  He 
was  a  true  philosopher  who  said,  "  If  I  had  all  truth  in 
my  hand,  I  should  let  forth  only  a  ray  at  a  time,  lest 
I  should  blind  the  world."  It  was  on  this  wise  principle 
that  Christ  acted  in  His  teaching  and  training  of  His 
disciples.  It  will  be  remembered  that  even  when  He  was 
about  to  part  with  them,  when  His  heart  was  full,  and 
He  longed  to  pour  forth  its  still  pent-up  treasures,  He 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  279 

put  severe  constraint  upon  His  feelings,  and  only  suffered 
Himself  to  say,  "  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now."  Now  this  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement  was  evidently  one  of  the  very  hardest 
things  for  them  to  bear,  connected  as  it  was  with  the 
sufferings-and  death  of  Him  Whom  they  loved  so  much, 
and  on  Whom  they  were  so  utterly  dependent.  This 
appears  very  plainly  from  the  conduct  of  St.  Peter  when 
the  subject  first  was  broached,  and  from  the  strong 
language  of  more  than  deprecation  which  he  used  :  "  This 
be  far  from  Thee,  Lord ;  this  shall  not  be  unto  Thee." 
We  need  not  wonder,  then,  that  a  Teacher  so  wise,  and 
kind,  and  sympathetic  should  keep  back  as  long  as 
possible  a  subject  so  painful  and  unwelcome.  This  is  set 
in  a  strong  light  by  the  fact  already  mentioned,  that  in 
so  many  as  three  of  the  Gospels  the  exact  time  and 
circumstances  are  specified  in  which  Jesus  began  to  give 
instruction  on  this  subject,  especially  when  it  is  observed 
how  appropriate  the  occasion  was,  inasmuch  as  the 
disciples  had  for  the  first  time  reached  those  convictions 
in  relation  to  His  Person  as  Son  of  God  as  well  as  Son  of 
Man,  without  which  there  could  be  no  conception  at  all 
of  the  true  meaning  and  value  of  the  Atonement.  It  is 
plain,  moreover,  from  what  has  been  said  as  to  the  crisis 
in  His  history  our  Lord  had  reached,  that  the  subject 
could  no  longer  be  deferred.  Not  only,  then,  is  the 
absence  of  this  doctrine  from  the  earlier  teaching  of  our 
Lord,  and  its  cautious  introduction  even  in  the  closing 
months  of  His  earthly  ministry,  accounted  for  by  the 
general  fact  of  the  progressiveness  of  His  teaching,  but 
we  can  see  that  it  is  introduced  as  early  as  possible,  and 
at  such  a  time  and  under  such  circumstances  as  to  give 
it  its  due  significance  and  weight. 

Then  there  is  this  further  consideration,  that  it  would 


2  8o  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

have  been  manifestly  premature  to  have  said  much  about 
the  doctrine  before  the  fact.  It  was  time  enough,  surely, 
to  give  full  explanations  about  the  Atonement  after  it  had 
been  made.  We  must  always  remember  that  there  is  this 
difference  between  Christ  as  a  teacher  and  other  teachers, 
that  He  Himself  was  the  subject  of  His  own  teaching. 
Other  teachers  have  their  facts  ready  to  hand,  or  at  all 
events  ready  made,  and  they  have  only  to  find  them.  He 
had  His  to  make.  He  was  Himself  the  centre  of  the 
truth  He  taught.  All  its  developments  were  connected 
most  closely  with  facts  in  His  own  history  ;  and,  inasmuch 
as  facts  must  precede  their  explanation,  the  doctrine  could 
not  be  completed  till  after  the  facts  had  been  accomplished. 
Before  His  death  He  could  only  speak  prophetically,  and 
prepare  them  for  that  which  was  to  come  by  impressing 
on  their  minds  its  absolute  necessity :  "  From  that  time 
forth  began  Jesus  to  show  unto  His  disciples  how  He 
must "  suffer  and  die ;  only  after  it  was  over  could  He 
begin  to  give  those  fuller  explanations  which  St.  Luke 
summarises  in  these  words :  "  Beginning  at  Moses  and 
all  the  Prophets,  He  expounded  unto  them  in  all  the 
Scriptures  the  things  concerning  Himself"  (Luke  xxiv. 
27) — an  exposition  which  plainly  had  the  Atonement  for 
its  centre,  as  is  evident  from  the  way  in  which  it  is  in- 
troduced (see  vers.  25,  26.) 

When  we  think  of  all  these  reasons  why  there  should 
be  but  little  reference  to  the  Atonement  in  our  Saviour's 
teaching,  we  may  perhaps  be  inclined  to  wonder  rather 
that  there  is  so  much.  There  are,  in  the  first  place,  the 
numerous  references  to  the  subject  in  language  more  or 
less  veiled  and  enigmatical :  the  taking  up  of  the  cross, 
the  destroying  and  rebuilding  of  "  this  temple,"  the 
sign  of  the  prophet  Jonas,  with  an  occasional  statement 
more  direct,  as  this  :  "  The  Son  of  Man  is  come,  not  to  be 


THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  28  I 

ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a 
ransom  for  many."  The  conversation  with  Nicodemus, 
as  recorded  by  St.  John  in  his  third  chapter,  seems  at  first 
so  distinct  and  emphatic  as  to  be  at  variance  with  what 
has  been  said  as  regards  the  progressiveness  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ.  The  exposition  of  the  brazen  serpent, 
followed  by  the  full  declaration  of  the  Gospel  in  the  oft- 
quoted  words  of  the  sixteenth  verse,  seems  more  than  could 
be  expected  at  so  early  a  period  of  the  Saviour's  ministry. 
But  the  special  circumstances  of  the  case  must  be  borne 
in  mind.  It  was  a  private  interview  by  night ;  and  Nico- 
demus was  a  learned  Habbi,  far  better  prepared  for  en- 
tering into  the  deeper  things  of  the  Kingdom  than  the 
fishermen  of  Galilee  could  be  at  first ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  was  not  so  bound  by  personal  ties  to  Jesus  as 
to  make  such  references  so  delicate  and  difiicult  as  they 
would  have  been  to  Peter,  James,  and  John.  It  is,  in 
fact,  one  of  those  exceptions  which,  according  to  the  pro- 
verb, "  pi'ove  the  rule."  Wo  see  in  it  the  evidence  that 
while,  as  a  rule,  Christ  felt  it  necessary  to  use  great 
reticence  concerning  this  doctrine  in  the  earlier  part  of 
His  ministry,  yet,  when  the  circumstances  did  admit  of 
it,  He  availed  Himself  of  the  opportunity  of  setting  it 
forth  as  clearly  and  strongly  as  possible. 

There  are  other  passages  in  St.  John's  Gospel  which 
ought  to  be  studied,  in  order  to  do  justice  to  the  amount 
of  our  Saviour's  teaching  on  this  cardinal  doctrine.  But 
we  prefer  to  rest  our  case  on  the  abundantly  sufficient 
testimony  of  the  other  three  Evangelists  ;  inasmuch  as  it 
is  on  them  that  our  Rationalist  friends  rely,  while  they 
regard  the  fourth  Gospel  with  much  suspicion,  as  if  it 
had  in  it  more  of  the  mysticism  of  John  than  of  the 
simple  ethics  of  Jesus.  While,  then,  our  case  would  be 
greatly  strengthened  by  the  use  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  it  is 


252  THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

SO  strong  otherwise  that  we  can  quite  well  afford  to  dispense 
with  it ;  and  accordingly  our  great  passages  have  been 
from  the  Synoptists,  the  conversation  with  Nicodemus 
having  been  referred  to  because  it  seemed  at  first  sight  in- 
consistent with  one  of  the  positions  we  had  laid  down. 

Still  further,  we  have  been  restricting  ourselves  to  the 
words  of  Christ ;  but  the  case  would  be  much  strengthened 
if  we  took  into  consideration  His  whole  bearing  through- 
out these  last  months  of  His  ministry,  and  especially 
during  the  days  of  the  Passion  Week.  Truly  that  death, 
which  occupies  so  very  large  a  space  in  each  one  of  the 
four  Gospels,  which  even  the  Evangelist  Mark,  with  all 
his  turn  for  condensation,  does  not  venture  to  shorten, 
is  no  ordinary  death,  is  something  more  than  even  a 
martyr's  last  testimony.  Hear  Him  in  the  garden  :  "  O 
my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  Me." 
The  event  proved  it  was  not  possible ;  and  why  was  it 
not  ?  Because  it  was  necessary  that  atonement  should  be 
made  for  sin,  even  as  the  Lord  Himself  explained  it  after 
the  agony  was  over  :  "  Thus  it  behoved  Christ  to  suffer, 
.  .  .  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be 
preached  in  His  name."  Again,  hear  Him  on  the  cross  : 
"My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?" 
Why  this  sense  of  forsakenness  ?  Had  He  not  been  the 
holiest  of  men  ?  Had  He  not  been  a  better,  was  He  not 
a  braver  man  than  Stephen — 

"  Who  heeded  not  reviling  tones, 
Nor  sold  his  lieart  to  idle  moans, 
Thougli  cursed,  and  scorned,  and  bruised  with  stones  ; 

But,  looking  upward,  full  of  grace, 
He  prayed,  and  from  a  ha^ipy  place, 
God's  glory  smote  him  on  the  face." 

"Wliy,  then,  the   difference  ?      Why  had  the   ]\Iaster  this 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  2  8 


J 


agonising  sense  of  forsakenness,  when  the  disciple  enjoyed 
in  his  last  hours  such  a  raptui-ed  sense  of  acceptance  ? 
It  cannot  be  otherwise  explained  than  as  the  apostles  ex- 
plained it,  and  all  Evangelical  Christians  understand  it, 
that  Christ  was  bearing  the  sins  of  the  world,  while 
Stephen  had  no  such  burden  to  bear. 

There  is,  however,  one  of  the  incidents  of  the  Passion 
Week  which  comes  strictly  within  the  scope  of  our  sub- 
ject, inasmuch  as  it  may  fairly  be  included  as  part  of  the 
teaching  of  Christ,  while  yet  He  remained  on  earth  ;  we 
refer  to  the  testimony  He  bears  to  the  importance  of  the 
great  subject  befoi'e  us  by  the  institution  of  the  Supper. 
Of  all  tlie  great  events  in  His  history,  the  one  of  which 
alone  He  established  a  memorial  was  His  death.  He 
made  no  provision  whatever  for  the  commemoration  of 
His  birth.  The  very  day  on  which  He  was  born  is  un- 
known ;  and  Christmas,  as  every  one  knows,  is  not  at  all 
of  His  appointing.  He  has  left  no  memorial  of  His  bap- 
tism, when  the  heavens  were  opened  above  Him,  and  the 
voice  from  the  excellent  glory  proclaimed  His  Divine 
Sonship.  He  has  left  no  memorial  of  His  transfiguration, 
when  Moses  and  Elias  came  from  the  other  world  to  do 
Him  homage.  He  has  left  no  memorial  of  His  ascension, 
when  a  cloud  of  glory  received  Him  out  of  His  disciples' 
sight.  We  have,  indeed,  a  memorial  of  His  resurrection 
in  the  Lord's  Day,  the  first  day  of  the  week,  observed 
tliereafter  as  the  Christian  Sabbath,  or  Rest  Day ;  but 
for  this  change  of  the  day  of  the  Christian's  worship  there 
is  no  recorded  command  of  the  Master.  But  of  His  igno- 
minious death  He  has  left  us  a  most  enduring  memorial 
in  the  ordinance  of  the  Supper,  instituted  in  close  con- 
nection with  the  Passover,  and  with  these  deeply  signifi- 
cant words,  "  This  is  My  body,  which  is  broken  for  you  ;  " 
"  This  cup  is  the  new  covenant  in  My  blood,  which  is  shed 


284  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST. 

for  you " — thus  justifying  and  adopting  the  prophetic 
words  of  His  great  Forerunner :  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 

Is  there  not  enough  in  all  this  fully  to  justify  the  cen- 
tral position  given  to  the  Atonement  in  the  Epistles,  to  say 
nothing  at  present  of  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
under  which  they  wrote,  and  in  which  we  recognise  the 
fulfilment  of  the  Saviour's  promise,  that  what  He  could 
not  say  to  them  while  He  was  with  them  in  the  flesh,  the 
Holy  Ghost  would  fully  teach  them  after  He  had  gone  to 
His  Father  ?  Is  there  not  enough  in  what  we  have  from 
the  lips  of  Christ  Himself,  to  justify  the  instinct  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  making  the  Cross  the  symbol  of 
Christianity,  and  the  Atonement,  or  rather  Christ  Him- 
self, "  Christ  our  Passover,"  "  sacrificed  for  us,"  "  Christ, 
and  Him  crucified,"  the  Foundation  on  which  the  whole 
structure  is  built  ?  Is  there  not  enough  in  all  this  to 
rebuke  and  condemn  the  cold,  barren  doctrine  of  those 
who  make  the  Cross  of  Christ  of  none  effect,  who  take 
away  the  sacrifice  and  leave  us  only  an  example,  which 
apart  from  the  grace  of  God  none  of  us  can  imitate,  and 
which  therefore  only  serves  to  deepen  our  despair, — and 
to  justify  the  eagerness  with  which  all  true  and  eai'nest 
Christians  clasp  to  their  hearts  the  warm,  living,  saving 
truth,  which  gives  inspiration  to  words  like  these  : — 

"  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  lue, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee  ! 
Let  the  water  and  the  blood, 
From  Tliy  wounded  side  which  flowed, 
Be  of  sin  the  double  cure, 
Save  me  from  its  guilt  and  power  ! " 

There  is  one  more  cardinal  point  in  this  concluding 
summary  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  which  we  must  notice 


THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  285 

ere  we  close.  We  have  seen  that,  looked  at  as  a  whole, 
it  fully  confirms  what  we  had  already  ascertained  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Christ ;  and  as  we 
have  followed  it  out  in  its  several  parts,  we  have  dis- 
covered that  it  begins  by  giving  the  same  prominence  to 
the  Person  of  Christ  which  was  so  marked  a  feature  of  His 
teaching  throughout,  and  then  proceeds  to  set  forth  the  great 
sacrifice  which  had  been  offered  up  on  Calvary  as  the  sum 
and  substance  of  the  Gospel,  the  one  ground  on  which  for- 
giveness and  salvation  could  be  preached  among  all  nations. 
And  now,  in  closing.  He  points  forward  to  the  future,  and 
fixes  their  thoughts  upon  "  the  promise  of  the  Father," 
that  is,  the  promise  of  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Spirit — a 
promise  which  had  been  given  again  and  again  to  the 
faithful  in  Old  Testament  times  as  one  to  be  fulfilled 
when  the  Messiah  should  have  finished  His  work ;  which 
had  been  taken  up  and  repeated  with  great  emphasis  by 
John  the  Baptist  (Matt.  iii.  1 1;  Mark  i.  8;  Luke  iii.  16); 
and  which,  according  to  the  testimony  of  St.  John,  the 
Lord  Jesus  had  repeated  and  enlarged  on,  in  those  tender 
and  memorable  words,  spoken  in  the  upper  room,  with 
which  He  comforted  His  disciples  on  the  eve  of  His  de- 
parture. Thus  it  is  that  our  Lord,  in  this  concluding 
summary  of  His  teaching,  brings  into  special  and  exclusive 
prominence  those  very  doctrines  which  the  Eationalist 
especially  denounces  and  discards.  The  reference  to  the 
last,  though,  from  the  necessary  brevity  of  the  summary, 
it  is  in  a  single  sentence,  is  yet  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
mark  its  essential  importance  as  completing  the  third  and 
last  stage  of  the  apostles'  training  and  equipment  for  their 
Avork.  The  Incarnation  was  the  great  lesson  of  the  first 
stage ;  the  Atonement  and  Resurrection  of  the  second  ; 
the  Coming  of  the  Spirit  to  endue  them  with  power  from 
on  high  was  the  crown  and  consummation  of  all. 


286  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

In  the  prominence  thus  given  to  the  work  of  the  Spirit 
tliere  is  full  agreement  with  the  testimony  of  St.  John, 
who  records  the  parting  words  of  Christ  in  the  upper 
room.  From  the  study  of  these  we  learn  that,  in  taking 
leave  of  His  disciples,  with  many  things  in  His  heart 
left  unspoken  because  they  could  not  bear  them  yet,  He 
was  most  careful  to  impress  their  minds  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  these  things  should  be  spoken  in  due  time  ;  that 
"another  Comforter"  was  coming  to  continue  and  com- 
plete their  education ;  and  yet,  while  speaking  of  another 
Comforter,  He  is  especially  desirous  to  make  them  clearly 
understand  that,  though  there  must  be  a  change  in  the 
mode  of  communication,  there  will  be  in  reality  no  change 
of  Teacher,  for  the  Comforter  is  to  come  in  His  name  ; 
"  He  shall  not  speak  of  Himself;  "  "  He  shall  take  of 
Mine,  and  show  it  unto  you ;  "  and  again  and  again  He 
speaks  of  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  as  equivalent  to  His 
own  coming  again  to  continue  the  work  He  had  begun  on 
earth.  It  is  as  if  He  said,  "  Though  I  cannot  complete 
My  teaching  and  your  training  on  earth,  I  shall  continue 
and  complete  it  by  My  Spirit  sent  to  you  from  heaven." 
Let  one  sentence  suffice  for  proof  of  this :  "  These  things 
have  I  spoken  unto  you,  being  yet  present  with  you. 
But  the  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the 
Father  will  send  in  My  name.  He  shall  teach  you  all 
things"  (John  xiv.  25,  26).  Thus  from  the  lips  of  Christ 
Himself  we  have  a  guarantee  that  the  teaching  of  the 
apostles,  after  they  should  have  received  the  Spirit,  would 
possess  equal  authority  with  His  own ;  and,  moreover,  we 
are  thus  by  Himself  prepared  for  expecting  in  the  writings 
of  the  apostles  fuller  developments  of  the  truth  which  He 
Himself  had  given  in  germ  and  outline.  Thus  we  find 
all  consistent  and  harmonious,  so  long  as  wo  hold  fast  to 
the  full-orbed  truth  concerning  the  Gospel  of  the  Grace 


THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO    CHRIST.  287 

of  God  ;  wliile  those  wlio  resolve  it  into  mere  ethical 
instruction  must  not  only  surrender  the  Epistles,  with 
the  book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Apocalypse, 
but  must  utterly  discredit  the  fourth  Gospel,  and  set 
aside  the  greater  part  of  the  words  of  Christ  as  recorded 
by  the  other  three  Evangelists,  retaining  only  certain 
portions  of  the  Saviour's  teaching  specially  selected  for 
the  purpose  they  have  in  view.  How  dare  they,  after  such 
a  pi'ocess  of  elimination  and  reduction,  call  their  remainder 
of  good  counsel  the  Gospel  of  Christ ! 

Very  much  more  might  be  advanced  on  this  great 
theme  ;  but  we  trust  enough  has  been  said  to  accomplish 
the  object  with  which  we  set  out.  We  think  it  has  been 
clearly  shown  that  the  great  truths  of  evangelical  religion 
are  rooted  in  the  life  and  teaching  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Himself,  though,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  some  of 
them  did  not  attain  their  full  development  until  He  had 
ascended  to  His  Father  and  ours,  and  His  Spirit  had 
come  to  guide  the  disciples  into  all  the  truth.  We  trust 
enough  has  been  written  to  show  how  vain  it  is  to  try 
to  obtain  the  sanction  of  Christ  to  those  views  of  the 
Gospel  so  prevalent  in  our  day,  according  to  which  sin  is 
an  irregularity  which  an  honest  man  can  set  right  for 
himself;  according  to  which  education  and  a  little  care 
are  all  that  are  necessary  to  fit  men  for  the  Kingdom  ; 
according  to  which,  if  they  only  admire  the  morality  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  the  beauty  of  the  parable 
of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  try  to  respond  in  a  life  as  con- 
sistent therewith  as  their  feeble  nature  can  attain  to  and 
their  unfortunate  surroundings  permit,  they  may  disre- 
gard almost  all  else  that  Christ  taught — enough  to  make 
it  manifest  that  a  gospel  so  illusory  cannot  be  connected 
with  the  name  of  Christ,  and  that,  therefore,  those  who 
are  willing  to  risk  on  it  their  life  here  and  their  prospects 


2S8  THE    GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO    CHRIST. 

for  eternity,  must  do  so  on  the  distinct  understanding 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  no  responsibility  for  it ;  that, 
in  fact,  it  is  heathenism  pure  and  simple.  And  we  trust 
that  by  our  inquiry  into  this  matter  we  have  been  led  to 
appreciate  more  highly  than  ever  "  the  glorious  Gospel  of 
the  Blessed  God,"  which  is  no  bare  set  of  rules,  no  dry 
code  of  laws,  no  mere  collection  of  moral  maxims  and 
wise  sayings,  but  the  revelation  from  heaven  of  the 
Infinite  Love  of  God  in  Christ  His  Son  Incarnate  for 
us,  crucified  for  our  offences,  exalted  a  Prince  and  a 
Saviour  to  give  repentance  and  remission  of  sins,  and 
by  His  Holy  Spirit  to  apply  to  human  hearts  and  lives 
that  Remedy  for  all  our  ills  which  is  fitly  spoken  of  by 
the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  as  "  the  power  of  God 
UNTO  SALVATION,"  by  means  of  which  we  are  taken  "  from 
the  horrible  pit  and  miry  clay,"  and  our  feet  set  upon  a 
rock ;  on  the  strength  of  which  our  sins  are  all  forgiven, 
and  an  abundant  entrance  assured  us  into  the  heavenly 
Kingdom  ;  by  the  virtue  of  which  we  are  transformed,  from 
glory  to  glory,  into  the  image  of  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God  ; 
in  the  faith  of  which  we  expect  triumphantly  to  pass  through 
the  dark  valley  to  the  scene  of  the  full  enjoyment  of  that 
eternal  life,  only  begun  here,  which  is  God's  gift  to  us 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  "  Now  unto  Him  that 
loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood, 
and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  His 
Father,  to  Him  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen." 


PRINTED    BY    BALLANTYNE,    HANSON   AND   CO. 
EDINBURGH  AND   LONDON. 


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